Bonds
by victoronice
Summary: The story of Naruto and Sasuke: friends, rivals, lovers, with a bond stronger than either of them had ever realized. So strong in fact, that even though they went through the hardest of times and even tried to kill each other, the bond could not break. And the two of them knew... it probably never would. - Or the retold version of Naruto with a SasuNaruSasu twist. (Yaoi, M later)
1. Introduction

"Naruto and Sasuke - similar in ways not many could understand upon first glance. They understand one another - they know each other's pain, their sadness, their loneliness and that feeling of being lost. They have a great level of respect for the other deep down, despite it never being shown. Friends, yet rivals. Both striving for their dreams, both trying to suppress their love. It's the ties that bind them, bringing them together and closer than either could imagine. They have a bond stronger than they could ever realize, and it's a very beautiful thing."

Hey, so this is kind of a prologue but kind of an introduction. This fic is, to put it simply, 'Naruto' with a SNS twist. The plotline is basically the same as the original, but at one point or another the story may stray from it slightly, like more missions would be included (more than likely including some Naruto/Sasuke moments), and things like that (And yes, btw, the title is from the Shippūden movie, because i thought it fit nicely and i didn't have many other ideas :p).


	2. One

The boy fell to his knees, tiny frame trembling as he cried, clutching his stomach. He picked himself up off the ground weakly, stumbling a bit. Covered in dirt and blood, he turned to face his attackers.

About fifteen kids, all from his class, stood in front of the boy. Some boys as well as some girls. They were all gathered around him, pushing him around and hitting him, jeering at him.

He wiped away his tears and held up two shaking fists, looking around at all the kids.

One of the older boys - an eight-year-old - stepped up to the unsteady six-year old, smirking down at him. The older boy swiftly hit the younger in the head, knocking him over. The older jumped on top of the younger, punching his face multiple times which made his nose bleed.

"You're a stupid freak, you know that?" The older spat, punching the younger once more. "Nobody loves you. No one will, so love yourself so no one ever has to."

The older got off and some other boys jumped in, kicking the six-year-old's tiny body. One boy kicked him in the stomach and the young boy coughed up blood.

The boys backed off a bit to see if the six-year-old would attempt to get up again.

The young boy got up on his knees and one hand, clutching his stomach with his free arm. Trembling uncontrollably with tears streaming down his whiskered cheeks, he briefly looked up and saw a small break in the crowd of kids surrounding him. He shakily got up on two feet and glanced back at the older boys.

He decided to make a run for it.

He pushed passed the kids and took off as best as he could in his state. The older boys pursued him, running throughout the village.

"Get back here, you little monster!"

The six-year-old stumbled along but kept running the best he could. The nearby adults just watched the older boys chase the young one without even batting an eyelid.

They didn't care about little Naruto Uzumaki.

In fact, nobody really cared about the little blond orphan. All the adults saw him as a useless, freakish, monstrous nuisance that carried the Nine-Tailed Demon Fox within him.

The children hated him because their parents did. None of the children knew what Naruto had sealed inside of him.

Naruto didn't even know himself.

The boys finally caught the blond in a field where there wasn't really anyone around, tackling him. Two of the three boys held Naruto by his arms while the last boy punched him repeatedly in the stomach, chest and face.

"No, no, no!" The blond screeched in agony, struggling fiercely in the older boys' grip. "Stop!"

The boy hitting him didn't let up, and Naruto cried out harshly each time he was struck.

The hitting stopped after a short moment and Naruto heard the boy in front of him chuckling.

"You'll never be a shinobi, freak," the boy stated, and the other boys holding Naruto let the blond go, letting him fall to the ground.

The boy gave Naruto one last kick before he and his friends began to walk off.

"Hey, losers!"

The boy and his friends turned around, eyebrows raised. Suddenly, the boy was struck in the face.

He fell to the ground, staring in shock as another six-year-old with black hair and eyes to match stood in front of him, glaring down at him. The raven gave him another punch in the face and walked in Naruto's direction.

The black-haired boy touched Naruto's shoulder, causing the blond to flinch.

"Hey, dobe, you okay?" The other six-year-old asked softly, crouching down next to Naruto. The blond looked up at the raven with tears in his eyes and on his face. The raven gasped lightly at Naruto's bruised, bloodied, dirt-covered and tear-streaked face. "Come on, let's get you cleaned up."

"Sasuke!!" A feminine voice squealed, and then a pink-haired girl was standing beside them along with a blonde girl. Naruto sort of recognized them from the academy. Sakura and Ino. "That was amazing! You're so brave!"

"Yeah!" Ino added, blushing. "And strong!"

Sasuke chuckled a bit. "Well, uh, thanks," he said, standing up. He offered a hand to Naruto, who just stared at him warily. Sasuke sighed lightly. "Stay right here."

Naruto watched as Sasuke left and the girls followed him. Naruto noticed that he, himself, was now alone.

He lay down in the grass and closed his eyes.

Sasuke came back alone a few minutes later with only a bowl of water, a rag and some bandages.

He gently shook Naruto, careful of the injuries. "Hey dobe, wake up," he uttered softly.

Naruto's eyes fluttered open and bright blue eyes met warm black ones.

"S- Sasuke..."

Sasuke placed a finger over Naruto's lips to hush him. "Hn, don't speak."

Naruto just watched as Sasuke used the rag to clean the dirt and blood off of him, and then he just watched still as Sasuke wrapped up his cuts in bandages. Sasuke also used his fingers to get all the grass out of Naruto's hair.

"There, all better," Sasuke said, smiling a bit as he threaded his fingers through the blond's hair gently, getting some knots out. "My mother and my brother told me to get the bandages actually. I'm glad I brought them."

"W- Well... thanks," Naruto murmured, breathing gently.

"You're welcome, Naruto." Sasuke giggled at the blond's expression and continued to play with his hair.

"Hey Sasuke," Naruto uttered after a few moments of just staring at the raven.

"Hm?"

"You're really pretty for a boy."

"Hn, thank you."

"... Hey Sasuke?"

"Yeah?"

"Why are you being nice to me?"

Sasuke shrugged. "Because you're kindhearted, sweet and cute."

Naruto smiled a little.

"Oh, and Naruto?"

"Hm?"

"Don't listen to that idiot. You will be a shinobi, and you'll be a great one."

Naruto grinned.

"So, Sasuke... you're from the Uchiha clan, right?" He asked, staring up at Sasuke's face.

"Yeah, I am." Sasuke smiled. "And what clan are you from? How old are you?"

"The Uzumaki clan!" Naruto replied, smiling proudly. "I'm six years old, and I'll be seven in October! How old are you?"

"Six, but I'll be seven in three days."

"Cool! Maybe I'll try to get you something!"

"Hn, don't worry about it too much, dobe."

"If you say so."

And the two stayed like that for the rest of the day, just talking and laying beside each other and not doing much else.

The two saw each other everyday, and they talked and played, and stayed together until it got late.

And on Sasuke's seventh birthday, Naruto had brought him freshly picked flowers, and explained that when he went to buy something for the raven, the store owner threw him out and called him a freak. Sasuke was angry at first, but then had accepted the flowers and blushed and thanked Naruto kindly, but oblivious as the blond was, the blush went unnoticed.

The two were sort of like secret friends - Sasuke's parents told him to stay away from Naruto way before, but obviously, he hadn't listened.

Naruto was finally becoming happy. The loneliness from before was fading...

Needless to say though, it didn't last.

Following the death - the massacre, of his family and his entire clan, Sasuke Uchiha became distant and cold towards everyone - including Naruto.

The gentle, pretty little boy Naruto once knew became depressed and angry, and hateful towards the world. He avoided most and when he was near people, he stayed quiet.

Naruto didn't know what to do. Especially when Sasuke began ignoring him.

And then Naruto's and Sasuke's secret friendship fell apart, and then Naruto was alone again. He was back to hating almost the whole village, because they all hated him. And now, at the age of twelve, the whole village just shunned him and left him alone.

Some still even called him names. Tried to hurt him.

He caused trouble just to be noticed sometimes, but it wasn't always effective and pretty much made people see him as an annoying little brat.

Naruto pretended to be happy all the time.

He really fooled them all.

He hadn't really spoken to Sasuke much between the time of the Uchiha massacre and now, but that didn't mean he didn't think about him. He wondered if Sasuke ever thought back to when they were friends.

When they both were truly happy for that short time.

He tried to talk to Sasuke after the massacre, but Sasuke blew him off. And when Naruto was ready to try again, he lost the courage to easily ended up walking away.

He often caught Sasuke crying all alone and he wanted to do nothing more than hug the poor Uchiha until he was happy again.

But he didn't.

He just left him alone, which is what he thought the Uchiha wanted.

But, on Sasuke's birthdays, Naruto would bring a few flowers and leave them in a glass of water outside of Sasuke's house.

He stopped that when he was ten.

And now, at twelve, Sasuke had all these girls in love with him (but when did he not?) and was popular, and was also extremely skilled for not even graduating yet.

Naruto was just the immature little freak that had no friends besides his sensei.

The blond sat in his class, about to do a test. It was a transformation jutsu test of sorts, Naruto quickly learned. Iruka-sensei probably explained it but Naruto wasn't listening. They had to transform into their sensei, but Naruto decided he wanted to play a prank instead. He grinned.

Sakura was up next.

Naruto had the biggest crush on the pink-haired girl, and sometimes he tried to act upon it but was never successful.

Because, of course, like every other young girl in Konoha, she was in love with Sasuke.

Sakura made a sign with her hands. "Transformation!"

A cloud appeared and then cleared she looked exactly like Iruka.

"Great job, Sakura," Iruka told her as she changed back. She smiled and stepped to the side.

Sasuke was next.

"You can do it, Sasuke!" Sakura giggled, blushing lightly.

Sasuke, seeming uninterested, stepped up and quickly did the transformation perfectly. Iruka told him he did great, and then it was Naruto's turn.

"Naruto, it's your turn."

The little devil grinned wickedly.

He stepped up and made the sign for transformation. Keeping a grin, a cloud appeared.

When it cleared, Naruto had the form of a naked, female version of himself. He winked and blew a kiss.

Iruka got a nosebleed and so did some of the other boys. Sakura looked mad, and Sasuke just looked apathetic as always.

Naruto changed back and rubbed the back of his head. "Heh..." He grinned cheekily. "That's how Naruto Uzumaki does it!" He pointed to himself with his thumb, still grinning.

"NARUTO!!" Iruka boomed, eyes narrowing at the blond boy.

"Sorry, Iruka-sensei," Naruto uttered, startled, and blushing a bit from the slight embarrassment of being shouted at.

"JUST- go sit down before I blow up," Iruka told him, sighing as he rubbed the bridge of his nose.

Naruto never ran to his seat faster.

Hey, here's the first chapter !! I hope you guys liked it c;


	3. Two

**Two | The Decree: A Forbidden Secret Revealed!**

Naruto was scrubbing away at the stone faces that he'd painted on earlier.

"This sucks," Naruto huffed, glaring at the stone. "Loser."

Iruka sat on top of the stones, arms crossed. "You're not going home till you've cleaned up every single drop of paint," he said sternly.

Naruto stopped scrubbing and looked up. "So what? It's not like there's anyone waiting at home for me." He went back to scrubbing.

Iruka looked down at Naruto a bit sadly. "Naruto?"

Naruto looked up again, eyes narrowed and a pout on his face. "What do you want now, sensei?"

"Well, I was just thinking. Maybe after you clean this all up, I can take you out for some ramen. The good stuff. What do you think?"

Naruto grinned massively. "Now that's some serious motivation! I'll have this clean in no time!"

Later that night, Naruto and Iruka were sitting at the ramen shop, Naruto slurping up his noodles.

"Naruto?"

"Mmmm…" Naruto hummed around his mouthful of noodles.

"Why would you do that to the Hokage faces?" Iruka asked, looking at the blond. "I mean, you know who the Hokage are, don't you?"

"Course I do," Naruto replied, finishing off his bowl with a sigh. "Everybody knows. They were the greatest shinobi of their time, right? The best of the best. Undefeated ninja champs. And the Fourth Hokage's the one who saved the village from the Nine-Tailed Fox. He was the most amazing."

"Then why did you…?"

"Cause I'm going to be greater than any of them. Me. Naruto. The next Hokage!" Naruto pointed at Iruka with his chopsticks. "A ninja legend! Then everyone will have to stop disrespecting me. Believe it!" Iruka sucked up the noodle hanging out of the corner of his mouth. Naruto swallowed. "Uh, by the way, I kinda want to ask a little favor, sensei."

"You want another bowl?" Iruka asked, although it was more of an assumption of sorts.

Naruto shook his head. "Uh-uh. I... I want to try on your headband. Come on, Please!?"

"Uh…" Iruka motioned to his headband. "Oh this? No way. You can only wear the leaf headband when you finally graduate from the academy and become a ninja. You've gotta pass the test tomorrow."

Naruto pouted. "That is so uncool!"

Iruka laughed. "Hey, is that why you took off your goggles?"

"… Ugh…! I want another bowl!"

Iruka laughed again.

The next day, Iruka stood in front of the class. "We will now start the final exam. When your name is called, proceed to the testing room. The final test will be on... the clone jutsu."

Naruto puts his hands up to his head, pulling at his hair slightly. 'Ugh! That's my worst technique! Great. I'm never gonna pass!'

On the table was a bunch of leaf headbands. Naruto walked up, as he was first, and got into a stance.

'Alright. Get it together, Naruto. You can do this. Believe it.' He made a hand sign. "Clone jutsu!"

The cloud disappeared, and Naruto looked to his right. Lying belly down on the floor, with it's tongue out, is a clone of Naruto. It was a little… pathetic. Naruto laughed nervously and Iruka had one of those looks on his face.

"You fail!" Iruka shouted, and Naruto began to flip out. "Hmm…"

"Iruka-sensei?" Mizuki murmured, causing Iruka to look at him. "He's off, but his moves weren't bad and he did hang in there and replicate. This is his third try, so you know he really wants to become a ninja. We could cut him a break and pass him." Naruto looked hopeful at the other sensei's words.

Iruka sighed. "Mizuki-sensei, The other students created at least three effective replications. But Naruto could only create one. And look at it. It's pitiful. I can't pass him." Naruto was very angry at this point.

Mizuki nodded with a sigh. "I understand."

Later, outside the academy, Naruto was all alone, sitting on the swing udder the shade, resting his head on the rope. He was depressed; everyone else passed and he didn't. The kids were all so happy, wearing their headbands.

"You see that? They called me first," said one kid.

"I passed with flying colors," said another.

"I'm proud of you son. We all are," said someone's father.

"Congratulations! I'm going to make you all of your favorites tonight. We'll have a feast!" Exclaimed someone's mother.

"There, you see him?" Ibara asked, pointing at the depressed blond boy.

"It's that boy," Tsubaki murmured. "I heard he's the only one who failed."

"Hmph! Well, it serves him right."

"Just imagine what would happen if he became a ninja… I mean, he's the boy who…"

"Shh…" Ibara whisper-yelled. "We're not allowed to talk about that."

Naruto heard a noise and looked over. Mizuki was there. Over near the students, Iruka was with the third Hokage, Hiruzen, and they were watching the blond and the other sensei.

"Iruka," Hiruzen uttered, sighing lightly. "There is something we need to talk about."

Naruto and Mizuki were already gone and the swing stopped moving.

Naruto and Mizuki sat together on a ledge. The sun was setting.

"Iruka-sensei is tough," Mizuki said quietly, glancing at Naruto briefly. "He's not against you."

Naruto looked down at his feet, sighing lightly. "Then why?" He asked. "Why only me?"

"He wants you to be strong. With all his heart. But that will never happen if he goes easy on you. He's like you, you know. No parents. No family."

Naruto looked dejected. "But… This time I really wanted to graduate."

Mizuki chuckled quietly. "Then I guess I'll have to tell you."

Naruto looked at Mizuki, tilting his head a bit. "Huh?"

"It's a secret… But I'm gonna let you in on it."

Naruto's eyes widened. 'A secret?'

Iruka was laying down in bed, the moonlight shining through his window. He thought back to what he and the Hokage talked about.

\- "Iruka."

"What is it, Lord Hokage?"

"I know how you feel. You grew up just like Naruto. Without knowing the love of a Mother or Father. The warmth of a family." -

Iruka remembered back to the night the Nine-Tails attacked.

\- He was being carried away.

Let me go! My Mom and Dad are still fighting back there! Ah!" -

"Iruka-sensei, wake up!"

Iruka got up and opened the door. There stood Mizuki.

"What?" Iruka asked a bit tiredly. "What is it?"

"You need to come to Lord Hokage's right away. It's Naruto. He stole the Sacred Scroll."

Iruka was shocked. "You mean the Scroll of Sealing? No!"

Meanwhile, Naruto was in the woods, reading the scroll near an old hut.

"Now let's see... The first one is... Multi-Shadow Clone Jutsu…" Naruto put a hand to his head, frustrated. "Ah! Not this again. It's my worst jutsu!"

"Lord Hokage! This is not just a prank. This is a serious crime!"

"The scroll contains secrets that were sealed by the first Hokage! Secrets known only to our village!"

At this point, Iruka and Mizuki ran up, joining the group of ninja and the third Hokage.

"If it falls into the wrong hands, they could destroy our entire way of life!"

"Alright. Bring Naruto here at once!" Hiruzen told them.

"Sir!" All the ninja replied.

'Where would he go?' Iruka wondered.

'Now that I told everyone what Naruto did, I can eliminate him. They'll be glad he's gone,' Mizuki thought to himself, smiling evilly. 'And of course I keep the scroll for myself.'

Iruka found Naruto in the woods with the scroll. He walked up to the blond, and Naruto looked up at him.

"It's all over," Iruka said with a bit of a laugh.

Naruto scratched his head, laughing back. Iruka straightened up, confused.

"Huh?"

"Got me already? Not bad," Naruto uttered, grinning a bit. "You're quick, sensei. I only had time to learn one technique."

'He's been out here practicing. I can tell how hard he's been working,' Iruka thought.

Naruto looked really happy. "Listen, Iruka-sensei! I'm going to show you this amazing jutsu and you're going to let me graduate and everything will be okay. That's the way it works, right? Anyone who learns Jutsu from this scroll passes?"

"Huh?" Iruka asked, confused again. "Where'd you get that idea?"

"Mizuki-sensei told me about it. Believe it." Naruto turned to show the scroll on his back. "He told me where to find the scroll…" He turned back to Iruka. "… And this place…" Naruto stopped, noticing Iruka's shocked face.

'Huuh? Mizuki?'

Iruka sensed an incoming attack, and looked over his shoulder at the kunai coming at him.

"Look out!" Iruka shouted, pushing Naruto back, taking the hit and flying to the wall of the hut, a kunai in his leg and some pinning him to it.

"I see you've found our little hideaway."

Iruka looked up at Mizuki, who was hiding in the tree. "So that's the way it is, huh? I should've known."

"Naruto!" Mizuki shouted, looking at the blond. "Give me the scroll, now!"

"Wait a minute… what's going on here…?" Naruto asked, confused, looking at Iruka and then Mizuki, then Iruka again.

Iruka, panting, pulled the kunai out of his leg and tossed it aside. "Naruto! Don't let Mizuki get the scroll! It contains forbidden Jutsu, that could put this village in grave danger. Mizuki used you to get the scroll for himself. For his own power."

Naruto looked up at Mizuki, angry.

"Naruto," Mizuki said, holding out his hand. "Iruka's just trying to scare you 'cause he doesn't want you to have the scroll."

"Huh?" Naruto looked at Iruka.

"Stop lying, Mizuki," Iruka spat, glaring at the other shinobi. He then looked at Naruto. "Don't let him trick you, Naruto."

Mizuki laughed. "Oh, I'll tell you who's really lying."

"No, Mizuki!"

"They've been lying to you your whole life, Naruto. Since the decree 12 years ago."

"What decree?" Naruto asked.

"Everyone knows except you. Iruka's trying to hide it from you now. He'd do anything to shut me up."

Naruto looked up at Mizuki, eyes wide. "What is this decree? Why does everyone else know about it?"

"Don't tell him!" Iruka shouted. "It's forbidden!"

"The decree is, no one can tell you the Nine-Tailed Fox is inside you! The Fox spirit that killed Iruka's parents and destroyed our village has taken over your body. You are the Nine-Tailed Fox!"

Naruto stared at the shinobi, shocked.

"Stop it!" Iruka yelled.

"They've all been sneaking around, hiding things from you your whole life. Didn't you think it was strange how they treated you? Like dirt. Like they hated you for just being alive."

Naruto had tears in his eyes. "No…! No, no, no, no!"

'That's why… they all hate me…?'

"That's why you'll never be accepted in this village. Even your beloved sensei hates your guts!"

Iruka bent over in pain, hands above the wound in his leg. He remembered what the Hokage said to him earlier.

\- "Iruka. Naruto never had a mother or father to care for him. He's shut out of everything and doesn't know why. Most people won't even look at him. How would you feel if everywhere you went, people turned their backs on you? That's why he gets in trouble. So people will notice him. It may not show, but he's always thinking about the family he doesn't have. He's hurting inside." -

Mizuki spun a shuriken above his head.

"Die, Naruto!" Mizuki threw a giant shuriken at the boy who carried the Nine-Tails.

Naruto fell back, then started to crawl away.

"Naruto! Get down!" Iruka yelled.

Naruto did, covering his head with his hands. When Naruto looked up, Iruka was above him, the shuriken sticking out of his back. Iruka coughed a little, in pain. Naruto looked up at Iruka, shocked and scared as drops of blood landed on his whiskered cheek. Mizuki also looked shocked.

"W- Why…?" Naruto asked softly.

"Because we're the same," Iruka murmured.

He remembered back to when he was a kid, with no parents. "When I was a kid, no one seemed to care. They didn't have time for me. They just forgot I was there." - Iruka remembered his younger self. He was trying to cross water on a rope, (but was acting stupid) and lost his balance. The other kids were laughing. - "My grades dropped. I became the class clown." - Iruka had fallen into the water, then he came back up. - "I just wanted them to see me…" - Iruka laughed, scratching his head, and the rest of the kids laughed, too. - "… And know my name. My school wasn't good enough to get the attention, so I did crazy things…" -Iruka remembered sitting in the corner of a room, by himself. - "…and then I had to pay for it. It was hard." Naruto was looking up at Iruka. Tears fell down Iruka's face, and onto Naruto's cheek. "I know that's how you feel, Naruto. You feel lonely and it hurts inside. And I could've been there for you more." Naruto sat up a little. "I let you down. I'm sorry. No one should have to suffer that much. No one should be alone like that." Naruto's lip trembled.

Mizuki chuckled. "Don't make me laugh! Iruka always hated you. He was orphaned because the Nine-Tailed Fox killed his parents. And that beast is now inside you. He'd say anything to get the scroll from you."

Naruto got up and ran.

"Naruto!" Iruka cried, reaching out. "Naruto!"

Mizuki jumped down, laughing. "You know, once he makes up his mind, nothing can change it." Iruka's hand dropped, watching Naruto run. "He's going to use the scroll to take revenge on the village. You saw that look in his eye, didn't you? Those are the eyes of a beast."

Iruka pulled the Shuriken out of his back. He began to stand. "No. Naruto…" Iruka began to turn. "…Isn't like that!" Iruka threw the shuriken.

Mizuki dodged the shuriken easily. It went up into the trees. "You're a joke. As soon as I eliminate Naruto and get the scroll, I'll be back for you." Mizuki jumped away.

'I won't let you,' Iruka thought to himself.

Meanwhile, Hiruzen was watching from a crystal ball. The Hokage sighed lightly. "This is not good. Mizuki has a big mouth. He made Naruto feel so bad. Worse than he's ever felt. It could unleash the power inside of him. If Naruto keeps tampering with the scroll, the seal that locks the Fox spirit inside of him could be broken. The beast will come out. If that happens, I fear for us all."

Heya, **sorry if anything is messed up btw** c:

Hope you enjoyed c:


	4. Three

**Three | You Graduate! The Orientation!**

Iruka was running after Naruto through the trees.

"Naruto!" Iruka shouted, and Naruto looked at him. "Everything Mizuki said was a lie. Give me the scroll. Hurry!" Iruka came up in front of Naruto. "He's coming after you to take it away."

Naruto stopped on a branch, then jumped, right into Iruka, sending Iruka flying back. Naruto landed on his feet, and slid to a stop. He was panting, hard.

Iruka was on his hands and knees. "It can't be…" Naruto took the scroll off his back, and backed up to a tree, sliding down to the ground. "How did you know, Naruto?" Iruka looked over his shoulder. "How did you know…" Smoke came up around him, then disappeared. Iruka was actually Mizuki. "… that it was me, and not Iruka?"

Naruto chuckled, and then smoke when up around him, revealing Iruka, and beside him, a small log.

"Because I'm Iruka."

Mizuki stood up. "You're a fool. Why are you protecting that freak? He's the one who wiped out your family."

"I don't care what you say, cause you're not getting your hands on that scroll."

Naruto, listening from behind a tree a bit away, leaned forward angrily.

"As if you could stop me," Mizuki muttered, smirking a bit. "Don't you get it? Naruto is just like me."

"How's that?" Iruka questioned.

"He wants the scroll for his own power, and his own vengeance. That's how beasts are. He'll poor all his rage into the scroll and destroy everything."

"You're right…" Iruka murmured.

Naruto gasped and hugged the scroll. 'So it's true. Iruka Sensei never believed in me. He thinks I'm some beast. Some kind of freak!'

"That is how beasts are," Iruka finished, and Naruto's eyes widened. "But that's not who Naruto is. He's nothing like that. Naruto's one of a kind. Works hard. Puts his whole heart into it. Sure he messes up sometimes, and everyone jumps on him... But his suffering only makes him stronger. That's what separates him from being a beast. So you're wrong. He's nothing like the Nine-Tailed Fox. He's Naruto Uzumaki, of the village hidden in the leaves."

Naruto was crying by this point.

Mizuki reached around to his last shuriken on his back. "Hmph! You really believe that dribble?" He pulled the shuriken off his back. "Iruka, I was going to save you for later but I changed my mind." Mizuki spun the shuriken. "You're finished! Mizuki then ran towards Iruka, about to kill him.

'So this is it…?' Iruka wondered.

Naruto suddenly jumped between them and head-butted Mizuki in the stomach, sending him flying backwards. Iruka's eyes were wide.

'Naruto…?'

"Not bad, for a little punk," Mizuki commented, looking at Naruto.

Naruto just stared. "If you ever lay a hand on my sensei…" Naruto began, glaring now, "I'll kill you!"

"Such big words," Mizuki taunted, standing up. "I can completely destroy you with a single move!"

Naruto made a sign with his hands, like a plus sign. "Take your best shot, fool. I'll give it back to you a thousand fold!"

"Let's see you try! Show me what you can do, Nine-Tailed Fox!"

Iruka just watched, very shocked, mouth agape.

"Shadow clone jutsu!"

Iruka's eyes widened. Surrounding them were hundreds of Naruto clones, in the trees and on the ground.

'Naruto… Those aren't just illusions,' Iruka thought to himself, sitting up and smiling. 'They're solid clones! He's mastered an extremely advanced jutsu!'

Mizuki was confused and overwhelmed. All the clones called out to him. He stumbled around. "Huh? What is this?" He fell and moved back. "No…"

"If you're not coming…" A Naruto clone began.

"Then we're gonna come after you," another finished.

Mizuki looked around and then screamed.

A few minutes later, Naruto was standing above a badly beaten Mizuki, rubbing his head and laughing.

"Sorry… I kinda got carried away," he said, flushing lightly although it was barely noticeable. He dropped his hand and looked at Iruka. "You okay, Iruka-sensei?"

Iruka let out a breath. "Yeah…"

'He's amazing. He wants to surpass all the Hokage... And I'm starting to believe he might do it.'

Iruka let out another breath. "Naruto. Come here a minute. I've got something I want to give you."

Meanwhile, the other shinobi were complaining about not being able to find Naruto.

"You're telling me no one can find Naruto?" One asked.

"Not a clue…" Another answered.

"This is bad news. We're gonna have to smoke him out or something…" A third had uttered.

The Hokage walked up, a pipe in his mouth, smiling lightly. "There's no longer any need to worry."

The shinobi looked at him.

"Lord Hokage…?"

"The scroll is safe… Naruto will be back soon."

"Sensei? How much longer?"

"… Okay. You can open your eyes now."

Naruto opened his eyes. Iruka was standing there, smiling, holding Naruto's goggles in his hands. Naruto noticed that Iruka was missing his headband.

"Congratulations," Iruka uttered, smiling slightly wider, eyes closed. "You graduate."

Naruto just stood there, shocked. He knew immediately that he was wearing a headband.

"And to celebrate, I have a surprise. We're going out for ramen tonight."

Naruto's lips were trembling. He was quiet.

He couldn't believe it.

Iruka noticed the silence. He opened his eyes, confused, the smile falling from his face. "Huh?"

"Iruka-sensei!" Naruto cried, jumping at the shinobi, hugging him, causing Iruka to fall down.

"Ah, that hurts," Iruka uttered, amused. Naruto laughed, and Iruka patted his back. "Oh come on." They started messing around.

'Naruto. This is only the beginning. The road gets tougher now that you're a ninja. But if I told you that, I guess it would ruin the moment. So I'll tell you later. Over Ramen.'

A few days later and it was time for the orientation. Naruto sat beside a silent Sasuke, smiling. He couldn't believe he was going to become a ninja.

"Hey, what are you doing here, Naruto?" A boy asked, looking at the blond. "Only graduates are supposed to be here."

"Oh yeah, Shikamaru? Well, look here!" Naruto shook his headband. "You see this? Yeah, I'm graduating, believe it!"

Shikamaru's eyes widened slightly, before he returned to an uninterested expression. "Whatever."

At that moment, Sakura and Ino both fought each other through the doorway, competing again.

"Ha, I won, billboard-brow," Ino said with a smirk.

Sakura scoffed. "You wish, Ino-pig. My foot was at least a tenth of an inch ahead of yours."

"Hi Sakura!" Naruto said with a grin, standing up slightly, waving.

Sakura's eyes flickered in the direction of the 'annoying' blond, but her eyes landed on Sasuke. She smiled.

Naruto blushed. 'Wow, she's smiling at me…'

Sakura began to run over to Sasuke.

"Hey, where are you going?" Ino asked.

"Hey Sakura!" Naruto exclaimed, grinning, but was pushed out of the way by the pink-haired girl, falling on the floor and being ignored.

"Hi Sasuke," Sakura uttered with a blush on her cheeks, holding her hands together as she stood next to the seat. "May I sit with you?"

"Hey, I was–" Naruto began, but was cut off when Ino butted in.

"Hey, I'm going to sit next to Sasuke, billboard-brow!"

"No, because I was here first, Ino-pig!"

"No, I was!"

Then others began to join in – "No, actually I was!" and "No, that was me! I was here first!"

And while everyone was arguing (mostly just the girls), Naruto squinted, a bit angry.

The blond boy jumped up on the desk in front of the Uchiha, squinting still but glaring into the black-haired boy's eyes.

Sakura and the other girls noticed, and the pink-haired girl furrowed her eyebrows in anger. "Naruto, what are you doing?!" She questioned agitatedly. "Stop glaring at Sasuke!"

Naruto glanced at her briefly before going back to glaring at Sasuke.

'I don't see what's so great about him!' Naruto thought, annoyed. 'I mean, a long time ago I would've seen it; Sasuke was so nice and gentle back then and I really liked him… but now he's just silent and rude. But still, all the girls ever even do is chase after him and talk about him. "Sasuke, Sasuke!" It gets annoying! I mean if Sasuke was still Sasuke I'd probably be right with them! Wait, no, I mean… Agh, whatever! All he is now is just a teme!'

Sasuke glared back, eyes narrowing as his own thoughts were swirling. 'Get off the desk, usuratonkachi. You're acting like a fool, you dobe.'

The two continued to glare at each other intensely.

The boy sitting in front of them went to move his elbow but accidentally hit Naruto. Turning his head to apologize, his eyes widened.

Sakura was at a loss for words, like all the other girls. "I…"

Naruto was locking lips with Sasuke.

Both of the boys' eyes widened in shock.

They stayed in that position for a good seven seconds or so before they broke apart, blushing and gagging and extremely embarrassed.

Sakura (and the other girls, too) was irate. 'Cha, I wanted to be Sasuke's first kiss!' She yelled mentally.

"Naruto!" She yelled (aloud this time) through gritted teeth, eyes narrowing.

"Hey, S- Sakura… it was an accident!" The blond stammered, gulping. Sasuke glanced at him momentarily, blushing again lightly before looking away, eyes hardening.

Sakura smirked evilly as she cracked her knuckles.

 **heyy I'm gonna update maybe tomorrow or so Idk but it's gonna be longgg cx**


	5. Four

**Four | Kakashi Hatake: Team Seven's Sensei!**

* * *

"Okay, now, I'll tell you the members of each team," Iruka began, holding his paper in his hand. He read the first one. "Team seven: Naruto, Sakura, and Sasuke."

Sakura cheered mentally (and a bit physically) and stuck her tongue out at the platinum blonde sitting behind her. Ino glared at the lucky girl that got on Sasuke's team.

Iruka read out the other teams: Ino, Shikamaru and Choji; Hinata, Kiba and Shino, and various others.

The next day, team seven sat in the classroom, eager to meet their new sensei.

Well, Sasuke wasn't eager but he still wanted to be trained.

Naruto sighed. "Man, what's taking our sensei so long?" He asked to no one in particular.

"Naruto, why don't you sit still?" Sakura sighed out herself, standing by Sasuke, of course.

"But why is the teacher of our seventh group the only one late?" Naruto asked, bored out of his mind. His eyes wandered around the room and eventually landed on the eraser for the chalkboard. He grinned and grabbed it, dragging a chair over to the door and climbing on it.

"Naruto, what are you doing?!" Sakura asked in a disapproving tone. She put her hands on her hips, shaking her head, but inside she was yelling, 'Oh man! I live for this stuff!'

"This is what he gets for being late," Naruto told the girl with a cheeky grin. He placed the eraser just right so when the door was opened, the eraser would fall and land on their sensei's head.

Sasuke sighed, annoyed. "Do you really think he'd fall for that?"

Naruto shrugged and got down, putting the chair back.

A few minutes later, the door was opening. "Sorry I'm late–"

The eraser fell on the half-masked man's head, falling to the floor.

Naruto burst out in laughter. "I got him! He totally fell for it!" Sasuke didn't do much beside look up.

Sakura panicked, blushing from embarrassment. "Sorry sensei! I told him not to do it, but he wouldn't listen! I'd never do anything like that!"

'Cha! Perfect shot!'

Naruto chuckled and rubbed his head awkwardly.

Sasuke's brow raised, before he closed his eyes. 'So… he fell for it after all. And he's actually a jounin? Just great.'

"It's quite alright," the sensei said, not angry at all. "I actually fell for it; didn't see it coming. Impressive."

Naruto grinned.

"Alright," Kakashi uttered. "Follow me."

The twelve-year-olds followed their sensei out of the classroom and onto the rooftop.

They all sat down and Kakashi smiled lightly. "Okay, why don't you introduce yourselves? One at a time."

"Introduce ourselves?" Sakura asked, tilting her head. "What do you mean?"

"Things you like, things you hate, dreams for the future, hobbies. Things like that."

"Why don't you go first?" Naruto suggested. "I mean before we talk, tell us about you so we know how it's supposed to work."

Sakura nodded at that and the jounin sighed. "Me? I'm Kakashi Hatake. Things I like and things I hate...I don't feel like telling you that. My dreams for the future...never really thought about it. As for my hobbies...I have lots of hobbies."

Sakura looked unimpressed. 'That was pointless, all we learned was his name,' she thought.

Kakashi only smiled under his cloth mask (though the only way Naruto could tell was because Kakashi's eye smiled and the mask wrinkled slightly).

"Okay," Kakashi uttered. "You can start."

"Believe it! I'm Naruto Uzumaki. I like instant ramen in a cup, and I really like the ramen Iruka-sensei got me at the Ichiraku Noodle Shop. But I hate the three minutes you have to wait after you pour the water in the ramen cup. My hobby is eating different kinds of ramen and comparing them. And my future dream is to be the greatest Hokage! Then the whole village will stop disrespecting me and start treating me like I'm somebody– somebody important!"

"How about you?" Kakashi nodded to Sakura.

"I'm Sakura Haruno! I like… well, the person I like is…" Sakura trailed off, blushing as she glanced at the Uchiha. "And my hobby is… Well, my dream is to…" Once again, she looked at Sasuke dreamily, blushing, but the Uchiha was looking away.

"And what do you hate?" Kakashi asked.

"Naruto." She glared at the blond boy, who pouted.

Kakashi sighed and waited for Sasuke to start.

With his hands clasped in front of his mouth, Sasuke began to speak in a low tone, but loud enough for them to hear. "My name is Sasuke Uchiha. I hate a lot of things, and I don't particularly like anything. What I have is not a dream, because I will make it into a reality. I'm going to restore my clan, and destroy a certain… someone…"

'Uh… I hope he doesn't mean me…" Naruto thought to himself, glancing at the Uchiha.

Nobody spoke for a good five seconds. "Okay," Kakashi said. "How should I put this? My first impression of this group is… you're a bunch of idiots."

Sakura and Naruto protested.

"Alright, I will test you first thing tomorrow."

The genin nodded.

"Oh, and one more thing, don't eat breakfast or you'll puke."

Smiling at the children's (Sakura's and Naruto's) horrified looks, the jounin left.

–

A/N Short chapter but there's more!


	6. Five

**Five | A Dangerous Mission: The Land of Waves!**

* * *

\- "Your assignment is very simple: you just have to take these bells from me. That's all there is to it. If you cant get 'em by noon, you go without lunch. You'll be tied to those posts and you'll watch as I eat my lunch in front of you." -

After a long, tiring day, the genin ended up passing. Although none of them got those damned bells from Kakashi, and Sasuke and Sakura fed Naruto when they wasn't supposed to, they still passed and were ready for their first mission.

Their first missions were easy, and their latest was retrieving a cat – all D-ranked missions.

Reporting to the Hokage after finding the cat didn't go as planned.

"Your next mission is babysitting," the Hokage told the genin.

This did not go over well with Naruto. "Heck no! Come on, old man, give us a better mission."

A bit of arguing and the genin found themselves with a (probably dangerous) B-ranked (but A-ranked if they ran into any enemies) mission to the Land of Waves as an escort to an old bridge builder guy, Tazuna.

They ran into a couple of enemies of course, and Sasuke had to save Naruto a time or two, but it was going sort of smoothly until they ran into him.

Zabuza, a criminal assassin from the Village Hidden in The Mist.

A long, stressful fight but they'd defeated him. A young tracker ninja collected the body of the assassin and left – leading Kakashi to suspect that Zabuza was still alive somehow. But unfortunately, Kakashi had overused his Sharingan – a rare kekkei genkai (or doujutsu) of solely the Uchiha clan – and was very weak, needing rest.

But still, Kakashi insisted upon training the genin, and taught them a bit about chakra flow, and set them to work on climbing a tree with no hands. Sakura did it with ease, but the boys were having trouble. Naruto asked Sakura for advice, and the boys kept training.

They eventually made it to the top.

But the next day, they went off to the bridge without Naruto so he could rest, and ended up in another fight with Zabuza and that tracker boy, confirming the copy-cat ninja's suspicions.

The boy, Haku, took on Sasuke while Kakashi dealt with Zabuza and Sakura guarded Tazuna. Haku used a secret jutsu, crystal ice mirrors, and attacked Sasuke from all angles.

Haku didn't want to kill him though.

Naruto eventually showed though, and Sasuke wanted to use Naruto to his advantage on the outside of the mirror prison against the feminine boy.

But Naruto, being the dobe Sasuke knew him as, snuck into the ice mirror prison to help. They both got attacked, but Sasuke had awakened his Sharingan for the first time and was watching Haku's moves closely, finally able to see them.

A few shadow clones later, Sasuke had burned Haku's robe with his fireball jutsu, and finally knew where he was.

But then Naruto had gotten hurt.

And Sasuke was protecting him with everything he had.

But when the needles stopped flying for a moment, Sasuke just stood there for just a second, but then blood was splashing onto the ground.

"Why did you do that, Sasuke?" Naruto asked, shocked. "Why did you protect me?"

"I don't know," Sasuke answered truthfully. "My body just moved on its own."

He had a few flashbacks of him and Naruto.

And he was falling over.

Naruto had caught him in his arms, holding the dying Uchiha close.

"My brother… he's still out there…" Sasuke had uttered, blood falling from his pale lips.

"Naruto… don't let your dream die…"

And as Sasuke went limp in Naruto's arms, Naruto hugged him, trying not to cry.

And then Naruto got mad. So mad, in fact, that the Nine-Tails was starting to take over him. A red chakra swirled around him, and he had gently lain the bloodied Uchiha down and was ready to fight.

"You were precious to him," said Haku at one point.

And then Haku had been killed. Not by Naruto, but by Kakashi, for Haku had tried to protect Zabuza from the jutsu Kakashi was using him.

Zabuza ended up dying after Naruto threw harsh words his way and Zabuza was ready to fight for Haku with broken arms, when Gato, the one who'd hired Zabuza, had kicked the dead boy's corpse. He fought Gato's men and killed Gato with one kunai in between his teeth.

Zabuza and Haku lay side-by-side, and it began to snow.

"Are you crying, Haku?"

The two were buried beside each other sometime later.

As for Sasuke, Sakura had cried her heart out when she saw him. But the Uchiha had opened his eyes, and was still alive. Sakura was overjoyed.

Sasuke had weakly stood, and Sakura had called out to Naruto.

Naruto locked eyes with Sasuke and smiled widely, pushing away the strong urge to run up to him and just hug him so tightly.

Tazuna built his bridge eventually and the little village was so happy.

They named the bridge 'Naruto'.

And then team seven started their journey home, to rest, train and get ready for another mission.

* * *

A/N More chapters await. Also, if it seems rushed, it's because this is mostly just an explanation for those who can't really remember and because I want to get to my own plot.


	7. Six

**Six | The Chuunin Exams And A Difficult Mission!**

* * *

About a month later perhaps, team seven went through the difficult chuunin exams next, meeting another team, team Guy, Neji, Rock Lee and Tenten, and a team of siblings from the Village Hidden in The Sand, Gaara, Temari, and Kankuro, as well as a helpful man named Kabuto.

In the middle of the exams, Sasuke was bitten on the neck by a snake-like man, named Orochimaru. A mark appeared on his pale skin near the bite, and the creepy snake guy had said Sasuke would come searching for him eventually.

Sasuke had fallen into a deep sleep after, and Naruto had too, due to another seal being added to his current one on his stomach.

Sakura ended up cutting her long hair while being attacked and Lee came to her rescue.

\- I promise to protect you with my life - She recalled him saying their first time meeting.

Sometime after the second test, there were some fights to exclude extra genin. After the winners were chosen, they were given a month to train before they had to do the third test.

Naruto had met a new sensei (because Kakashi needed to train Sasuke and Sakura had already lost), a pervy toad sage named Jiraiya.

During the exams, after the fights to exclude some of the genin but during the third test fights of skill, Konoha was attacked and the third Hokage was killed by Orochimaru, his student.

But sometime later, after Orochimaru and the Sand intruders had retreated and after Hiruzen's funeral, although the exams were not completed, Sasuke and Naruto ended up having to fight Gaara in his one-tailed form. They won, and the village was being rebuilt and everything was okay for now (but at some point Naruto found out that Kabuto was working with Orochimaru).

Kakashi smiled behind his face mask when he reached his team, Jiraiya following. They were at the ramen shop, Naruto eating, Sasuke looking a bit bored and Sakura trying to get the Uchiha's attention.

"Naruto, Sasuke, Sakura," Kakashi uttered, his getting the attention of his team.

"Kakashi-sensei, Pervy Sage!" Naruto exclaimed, grinning.

"Hey kid," Jiraiya said with a smile, rubbing Naruto's head (which the genin did not like very much). "And hey, what'd I tell you about calling me that nickname in public?" He whispered, blushing, and Naruto chuckled.

"What is it, Kakashi-sensei?" Sakura asked, tilting her head.

"You have a new mission," Kakashi told his students.

"That's right," the sage smiled, patting Naruto on the back.

"What is it?" Naruto asked excitedly. "What's the mission gonna be?"

"You are going to accompany me on a trip to find a woman," Jiraiya told them, and Kakashi nodded.

"Lady Tsunade," Kakashi continued, smiling lightly. "We need her here at the village."

It was true, they needed Tsunade at the village, but they also needed Naruto out for a little while. Kakashi, Guy, and two jounin – the leaders of team eight and team ten – fought with Itachi Uchiha, Sasuke's older brother, and another, a shark-like man named Kisame. Itachi had said he needed Naruto – well, more specifically, the Kyuubi – and was planning to kidnap him.

And plus, they needed Sasuke gone too, in case Itachi showed up to take Naruto while Sasuke was there. Things would not go well if the two faced each other.

Itachi was the one who massacred the Uchihas, after all.

And Sasuke just wanted to kill his brother. He wanted revenge.

"Okay, when do we leave?" Naruto asked, a bit confused but still excited to go on a mission.

"Immediately," Kakashi replied. "But I'm not going with you. I have other things to take care of."

"Okay," Sakura said, smiling. "Well, I guess we should pack!" And with that, she ran off to her house.

"Hn," Sasuke muttered, getting up and walking in the direction of his home. Naruto did the same after saying bye to Kakashi and paying for his ramen.

Soon enough, team seven and Jiraiya were at the entrance to the village. They all set off, a long journey ahead.

–

When it got late, they stopped to make camp. They got a fire going (with the help of one of Sasuke's jutsus) and got three tents set up.

Three. And there were four of them.

"Well, here's what we'll do," Jiraiya began. "Sakura will have her own because she's a lady, Sasuke can have his own because he started the fire, and Naruto can just bunk with me."

Naruto scrunched up his face in distaste but didn't say anything, and they all set off into their respective tents to sleep.

But during the night, Naruto found something out. Jiraiya snored. Extremely loudly, if he might add.

Deciding he could not possibly sleep with the sage snoring so irritatingly loud, he got up and left the tent.

'I have two options,' Naruto thought to himself, squinting. 'I can either climb in with Sakura and risk her aggressively hitting me and thinking I'm a perv, or I can stay out here and sleep by the fire and hope something doesn't come out to eat me, OR, I can sneak in beside Sasuke and risk getting that glare from him, and probably get killed after…'

Naruto pondered this for a moment.

"Well… fire it is."

But when Naruto looked down, the fire was almost out. And it was not warm enough out at night for him to sleep outside of a tent.

'Well, I could go back to Pervy Sage…'

Naruto glanced back at the tent, where the loud snores were coming from.

'Dammit, why can't the fire be lit…? Ugh, okay then… Sakura, Pervy Sage, or Sasuke…'

Naruto shifted from one foot to the other.

'Sakura, who will definitely think I'm a perv or something and will kill me, Pervy Sage, who will cause my future insomnia which will lead to my death, or Sasuke, who will attempt to kill me with that damn glare of his…'

'…'

"Let's try Sakura…"

He snuck over to her tent, opening the tent. "Psst, Sakura," He said quietly. When she didn't wake, he called her again, and she stirred.

Blinking, she realized who it was peeking in and she glared. "Get out, you pervert!" She hissed, and reached forward to hit the blond, but he ducked away in time.

Standing outside her tent, he squinted again.

"Sasuke it is then," he decided, and began to make his way to the Uchiha's tent.

He pulled back the flap and stared inside. "Sasuke," he whisper-yelled, reaching in and shaking the raven.

Sasuke immediately woke, sitting up with a kunai in his hand, ready to fight.

"Sasuke, teme, it's me!" Naruto said quietly, panicked. He put his hands up and the Uchiha sighed, glaring at the blond as he put his kunai down.

"What do you want, dobe?" He asked irritatedly, rubbing one eye.

"I was, um… I was wondering if I could sleep in here with you…"

Sasuke blinked. "No," he said, and lay back down on his side.

"Please Sasuke-"

"I said no. Go sleep next to that perv."

Naruto pouted. "But Sasuke, he snores too loud and I can't sleep-"

"Not my problem."

"It is your problem if I get no sleep and I just start complaining all day, because you'll have to listen…"

Sasuke glared at the side of the tent. "Just sleep by the fire."

"It's practically nonexistent."

Sasuke gritted his teeth and silently cursed the blond. "Usuratonkachi-"

"I even tried Sakura, but that didn't go too well…"

"Look, dobe, I don't care what you do, but just go away and leave me the hell alone," Sasuke growled.

"Sasuke, please… It's cold out here, and… I promise I'll be quiet!"

"Dobe," Sasuke warned. Naruto was pushing him past his limits.

"Please, Sasuke, please…?"

Sasuke sighed out agitatedly. "Tch, whatever, just shut up already."

Naruto grinned and climbed inside. "Thank you…"

"Hn," was the reply the blond received.

Naruto lay down in the small tent beside his teammate, smiling still. After a few minutes, he reached out, brushing his fingers over Sasuke's arm.

"What are you-?" Sasuke began, but stopped when Naruto spoke.

"Goodnight, Sasuke… Sleep well."

And then his fingers had retreated, leaving Sasuke to feel a twinge of guilt at being so harsh before. But the guilt quickly disappeared and he was falling asleep to the sound of the blond's even, shallow breaths.

* * *

Hey, a longer chapter! I think I have one or two left for today, and also, I know Sasuke and Sakura didn't go to find Tsunade but this fic is kind of like canon divergence actually and i wanted them there. I hope you enjoyed !


	8. Seven

**Seven | Saving a Friend: Sasuke VS Itachi!**

* * *

Early the next morning, they set off again. They entered a village and decided to stop to look for Tsunade.

But of course, Jiraiya got distracted by a pretty girl and left on his own to 'look for Tsunade' and told the children to get a room at an inn for themselves.

Jiraiya had said that Naruto was to stay at the inn they'd paid for and meditate, and so Sakura and Sasuke went to explore the village while Naruto found an inn and got a room.

The two were walking around after lunch when they spotted a jounin from Konoha running their way.

"What is it?" Sasuke questioned, eyes narrowing.

"Where is Master Jiraiya?" The jounin asked, coming to a halt.

"We aren't sure," Sakura told him, looking a bit worried.

Sasuke nodded. "Yes, but whatever it is, we can tell him when we see him."

The jounin sighed and nodded. "Some of the ANBU had spotted Itachi Uchiha heading this way early this morning and now they're tailing him. He was in the village last night they said, but now he's headed here, after Uzumaki…"

Sasuke paled. 'I- Itachi… He's after Naruto…? But why?'

"Itachi Uchiha…?" Sakura asked, glancing at Sasuke. The jounin nodded.

"Yes, so if you see him, be cautious, and don't look into his eyes."

Sasuke only nodded, and the jounin ran off. Sasuke turned to Sakura. "Go find Jiraiya. I'm going to check on Naruto."

"Okay, but Sasuke… is Itachi…?"

"He's my brother," Sasuke muttered, eyes narrowed, a frown on his pale lips.

Sakura reached out and touched his shoulder, concern evident in her pale green eyes, but Sasuke only shoved her off and began running.

'Where could the dobe be? I don't know what inn he chose…'

Looking around, Sasuke found an inn and ran up to the woman sitting at the counter.

"Excuse me, did a silly-looking blond boy about my age come in here?"

The woman shook her head and Sasuke left. He stopped at the next inn and asked the lady almost the same question.

"Did my friend – a blond boy, clad in orange, about my age – come in here?"

The woman nodded. "Yes actually, in room twenty three."

Sasuke dashed off, looking at the numbers on the doors. When he found twenty three, he knocked on the door.

When he received no answer, he knocked again, louder and harder this time. "Naruto, it's me, let me in."

The door was opened and Naruto stood there, grinning slightly. Sasuke wasted no time in tackling the blond to the floor and kicking the door shut.

"Teme, what the heck are you doing?!"

Sasuke sat up slightly, looking down into the slightly irritated eyes of the blond. He quickly got off of Naruto and stood, brushing himself off.

Naruto glared slightly and stood up as well. "What was that about?!" He just about shouted. "Where's Sakura and Pervy Sage?!"

Sasuke grabbed Naruto's shoulders, moving him until he sat on one of the beds. He looked into Naruto's eyes, and his own were narrowed. "Dobe, listen to me," he said calmly, but seriously, hands still on the blond's shoulders. "A pretty dangerous someone is coming after you, but for what reason, I don't know. You're in serious trouble here, do you hear me? I came to make sure he doesn't touch you."

Naruto could only blink a few times in surprise. "But… Sasuke…"

Suddenly, there was a knock at the door. Sasuke leaned close to Naruto's ear to whisper: "You need to try to hide your chakra if possible. I'm not quite sure if he can sense it or not."

Naruto nodded, and suddenly Sasuke was pulling him up and pushing him into the closet.

"But Sasuke, I can take on whoever it is!" He whisper-yelled, not at all scared. Sasuke shook his head and continued to push the dobe into the closet. "Aw, come on! Why do you always get to be the hero–"

"Shut up, and get in," Sasuke snapped, Sharingan spinning as he glared at the blond, and so Naruto just shut up and went into the closet. "Don't make a sound, dobe."

Sasuke closed the closet door and stood by the bed, eyes narrowed at the entrance to the room.

There was another knock on the door, but Sasuke didn't move. After a few more knocks, the room was forcefully broken into.

Sasuke could only glare, Sharingan still spinning wildly as Itachi and someone he didn't know (Kisame) stepped into the room.

Sasuke's heart was hammering in his chest. It'd been so long since he last saw his brother, and yet, all Sasuke wanted to do was kill him, make him pay for what he did.

Itachi looked surprised at the sight of his little brother, his own Sharingan spinning lazily while his brother's was wild (but Itachi was also surprised that Sasuke even had his own Sharingan).

And meanwhile, Naruto was trying to figure out what was going on.

"Itachi," Sasuke growled lowly, clenching his hands into fists.

"Sasuke," Itachi murmured, blinking.

"Itachi, you know this kid?" Kisame asked, one eyebrow – if he had any – raised.

"Yes, he's my little brother," Itachi sighed, stepping farther into the room. Sasuke only glare only intensified, his eyes hardening as Kisame chuckled.

But Naruto's eyes widened and he gasped quietly, but covered his mouth immediately after. 'Brother?!'

"What do you want?" Sasuke snapped, although he knew who Itachi was after, and Itachi knew that, but replied nonetheless.

"The jinchuuriki," he uttered tiredly, not wanting to really be around his brother at the moment.

"Jinchuuriki…?" Sasuke questioned, eyebrows furrowed.

Itachi only sighed. "Where is he, Sasuke?"

"You won't get him."

The brothers just frowned at each other, Sasuke glaring still.

"Give it up already, Sasuke. Where is he?"

Sasuke pulled out a kunai. "Why do you care so much?"

Itachi shook his head, sighing once again as his brother came at him. Itachi ripped the kunai from his brother's hands, pushing him away and tossing the kunai to the floor.

"Don't be a fool, Sasuke," Itachi murmured, watching as Sasuke produced a series of hand signs (for a jutsu Kakashi created and taught to the younger Uchiha – the Chidori, or Lightning Blade). "And besides, I'm not interested in fighting you." Sasuke growled at his brother and gripped his own wrist, sending chakra to his hand.

"Chidori!" He shouted, a ball of chakra in his hand. He charged at Itachi.

Itachi grabbed his brother's wrist, stopping the jutsu. Sasuke looked surprised, but then tried to hit his brother with his free hand. Itachi snapped the wrist he was holding, causing Sasuke to cry out in pain.

Itachi punched his brother in the cheek, his ring cutting the skin. He sent a blow to Sasuke's stomach, sending the younger Uchiha flying into the wall.

Sasuke shakily got up, coughing up a bit of blood. Itachi was in front of him quickly, grabbing him by the throat and slamming him against the wall.

Sasuke couldn't move much, trying hard to breathe.

"Sasuke," Itachi murmured, his Sharingan spinning faster. "You're so weak." Sasuke accidentally looked into his brother's eyes then, and fell under Itachi's genjutsu.

Sasuke saw horrible, horrible things. He wanted to die.

Suddenly, Naruto was out of the closet and raising a fist to Itachi. "Leave him alone!" He shouted, but Itachi punched him before Naruto could even land one hit.

Naruto fell onto the floor, glaring up at the older Uchiha. "Don't touch him," he growled, getting up again and charging.

Itachi closed his eyes –the genjutsu broken – and he shook his head, pushing Naruto across the room. He let his brother drop to the floor, back against the wall, as he turned his attention to the blond.

"Ah, so you're the Nine-Tails?" Itachi questioned, but it was more of a statement. "Naruto, right?"

"So, you're Sasuke's jerk of a brother," Naruto retorted, glare intensifying as he stood. "Itachi, right?"

Itachi hummed as he stepped towards the blond boy.

In a puff of smoke, Jiraiya was in the room, eyes narrowed. "Naruto, you take care of Sasuke. I've got this."

Naruto ran past Itachi and over to Sasuke, gripping his shoulders and blocking out the others. "Sasuke…" Naruto whispered softly, moving the Uchiha into his arms and staring down at his pretty pale face.

A few minutes later, Naruto noticed Itachi and Kisame were gone. Jiraiya knelt down beside the boys and examined Sasuke. He noticed the bruising and swelling of Sasuke's wrist, and knew it was broken.

Naruto lay the unconscious Uchiha down on the bed, moving some of the hair out of his face and cleaning the blood off of him. Naruto turned to Jiraiya after a few minutes of silence.

"Hey, Pervy Sage… do you think Sasuke will be okay?" He asked softly, his eyes falling back onto the Uchiha.

"More than likely," Jiraiya replied, sighing. "But luckily, Tsunade has healing abilities, and should be able to help him."

Naruto smiled a bit at that, and just watched Sasuke rest for a few moments.

"Hey, Pervy Sage?"

"Hm?"

"Where's Sakura?"

"Oh, right… I left her at a food shop and told her to wait until one of us came for her."

"Oh, alright…" Naruto shook his head, chuckling. "Maybe you should get her."

Jiraiya chuckled and left, going to find Sakura.

Naruto grabbed Sasuke's good hand, smiling. "Thank you, Sasuke…"

* * *

Oh yeah, again sorry if I'm rushing.. hope you enjoyed!


	9. Eight

**Eight | The Legendary Sannin: Nostalgia!**

* * *

Sasuke woke a couple of hours later, a bad pain in his hand, and a dull ache in his head. He tried sit up in bed, wincing.

Naruto came over and helped the Uchiha sit up, and then Sakura was by the boys' side.

"Sasuke, are you feeling alright?" She asked, hugging him. He just sat still, not saying anything.

"Does your hand hurt?" Naruto asked, and Sasuke nodded lightly. Naruto reached on the nightstand and grabbed the pills Jiraiya left for the pain (but meanwhile, Jiraiya was out 'asking around about Tsunade'. That pervert).

"Here, take these," Naruto said softly, dropping the medicine into the Uchiha's hand. "They'll help."

"Thank you…"

Sakura smiled and moved to make lunch for the boys, having already eaten.

When she brought them the food, they ate slowly in silence.

While Sakura did dishes, Naruto looked at Sasuke carefully. "Are you okay?"

A sigh. "Hn, dobe…" Was the reply, but it lacked the venom it usually held. "I'm fine."

Suddenly, Naruto was hugging him. It felt nice and Sasuke found himself lightly hugging back.

Sakura smiled at the scene and went back to cleaning.

Sasuke smiled a bit as well, before he pushed the blond away. "Usuratonkachi."

Naruto grinned.

The next day, they were on the move again, and meanwhile, Jiraiya was teaching Naruto a new jutsu. Town after town, and no sign of Tsunade yet.

Eventually, they did find her in one town, but she would not go with them. Naruto made a bet with her (if he mastered the new jutsu, she'd give him her necklace and admit that he was worthy of becoming Hokage) and won, mastering the jutsu Jiraiya was teaching him – the Rasengan.

Sasuke and Sakura stayed at an inn (after Tsunade's assistant Shizune had healed Sasuke's wrist) like they were told, but Naruto didn't listen and left to join in on Tsunade's, Shizune's and Jiraiya's fight with Orochimaru and Kabuto.

But he didn't know that Sasuke was tailing him.

The three Sannin, Naruto, Shizune and Kabuto all fought, and from the looks of it, nobody was really winning, nobody was really losing.

Kabuto and Naruto fought after Shizune was down and Tsunade was healing herself, but Kabuto used some medical jutsu attack and hurt the blond very badly (after Naruto used Rasengan on him).

Naruto was dying.

Jiraiya took care of Orochimaru and Kabuto healed himself while Tsunade was trying to help Naruto. She attempted to heal him.

And then Sasuke was running up to her. "Is he okay?"

"I thought we told you to–"

"I didn't have to listen. Now, what happened?"

"Him," she said lowly, looking in Kabuto's direction. Sasuke's eyes narrowed, glaring at Kabuto, and then he glared at Orochimaru, who was fighting Jiraiya still.

Sasuke crouched down. "Is he okay though?"

Tsunade sighed. "He's hurt very badly–"

"Well then help him," Sasuke snapped. "You can't let him–"

"Shut up, I'm doing the best I can!"

Sasuke grabbed Naruto's hand and squeezed. "You better not– I better not lose you, usuratonkachi."

And with that, Sasuke got up to deal with Kabuto.

Tsunade tried to help Naruto the best she could, but he stopped breathing and she freaked out.

"Don't die! Don't you dare die on me!"

A moment went by and Naruto weakly opened his eyes, reaching up and grabbing her necklace.

"This… is mine, by… the way…" He whispered, pulling it until it came off. "I won… our bet…"

She just stared as he slipped back into consciousness, and was okay.

But then Orochimaru was advancing on them.

"I won't let you take him," she said, glaring at her old teammate. "You cannot have him."

Orochimaru fought Tsunade, but he and Kabuto ended up retreating not too long later, Orochimaru winking at Sasuke before he left though.

They all went back to the inn where Sakura still was. Tsunade agreed to come to the village and become the fifth Hokage (which confused Naruto, Sasuke and Sakura). So, team seven, two of the Legendary Sannin and Shizune (and Tsunade's pig Ton Ton) all went back to the Hidden Leaf Village.

Everything was finally settled for awhile.

Naruto sat in his small home, eating before he'd go out and get some training done. He quickly at his ramen, before grabbing his jacket and headband and putting them on. After that, he made sure he had his ninja tools and ran out to the training grounds.

He trained hard all day long, and when he was done, he decided he wanted to treat himself to some ramen from Ichiraku Ramen for dinner because of all the hard training he did.

But instead of Ichiraku Ramen, his feet lead him to somewhere he hadn't been in an awfully long time.

It was the field where he first met Sasuke, when those boys had been hurting him. He smiled fondly at the memory of Sasuke cleaning him up, playing with his hair and smiling at him like he wasn't a waste of space.

The sun was setting. Colorful flowers had been growing lately, giving the field a nice color, and Naruto smiled again. It was a pretty place.

Naruto suddenly wondered why he was at this place. 'Aren't I supposed to be getting ramen?' But he couldn't bring himself to leave.

Naruto occasionally wished he could go back to the times when Sasuke liked him, when Sasuke was one of the only ones who really cared. Back to when things were simpler, easier but harder, when Naruto didn't know why people hated him. Because at least back then, there was that small amount of time when Naruto had Sasuke.

He looked up to the Uchiha, and ever since Sasuke drifted away, Naruto thought of him as a rival, and wanted to be better than him. But deep down, what he really wanted was Sasuke's approval, his respect. He didn't really want to be better than Sasuke. He wanted to be Sasuke's equal.

And after the massacre, he had wanted to approach him for so long, but never knew how. Sasuke was just like him, and Naruto knew what the Uchiha was going through. He wanted to reach out to him, wanted to be there for him. But it never happened.

'Stupid nostalgia,' Naruto thought, sitting down and picking at the grass as he let out a sigh. He took off his headband, staring at it and tracing the leaf with his finger.

"Dobe, what are you doing here?"

Naruto looked over his shoulder, wide-eyed. "Teme! What do you want?"

Sasuke glared lightly. "Hn, I asked a question first, usuratonkachi."

Naruto squinted and turned away, deciding to just not answer.

He heard footsteps and then he saw Sasuke standing beside him, before the older sat down in the grass as well.

"What are you doing?" Sasuke asked, staring at the headband in Naruto's hands.

Naruto shrugged, not really sure himself.

Sasuke's eyes went from the headband to Naruto's face. "Hey, what's with you?"

"Huh?" Naruto looked at the Uchiha.

"You're usually loud and annoying, but now you're being uncharacteristically quiet… It's unsettling, honestly."

Naruto looked away. After a few moments, Sasuke reached out and touched his shoulder, causing the blond the flinch slightly.

"Hey, dobe, you okay?" Sasuke asked softly.

"Nostalgia," Naruto murmured, suddenly getting a sense déjà vu. "It's the nostalgia that I feel here."

"Nostalgia? What are you talking about?"

"When we first met…" Naruto began, smiling small at the memory once again. "We met here… at this field, remember? You had saved me that day…"

Naruto looked up at Sasuke's face and for a second, he thought he saw surprise, but it was gone in an instant.

Sasuke furrowed his eyebrows. "Tch, dobe, I don't really remember," he lied, looking off towards the sunset. "It was a long time ago, after all."

In truth, he remembered it very well. It was one of the best days of his childhood.

Naruto frowned slightly, looking away. "I see," he muttered disappointedly. Sasuke swallowed, trying to ignore the hurt in Naruto's voice.

After a minute, the whiskered blond sighed. "Sasuke…"

"Hn?"

Naruto shook his head, smiling. "Do you want to get some ramen? Just you and me? No Sakura, no Kakashi-sensei or Pervy Sage or anyone else. Just us. What do you say?"

Sasuke shook his head very lightly, closing his eyes, a small smile on his lips. "Alright, usuratonkachi."

Naruto grinned, getting up, putting his headband on and offering a hand to Sasuke. The Uchiha took the hand and was pulled to his feet, stumbling a little. Sasuke had tried to take his hand away a moment later, a blush on his pale cheeks that went unnoticed by the blond, who'd already started to lead the way out of the field, Sasuke's hand still in his.

"Come on, Sasuke!" Naruto exclaimed, grinning as he let go of the Uchiha's hand to run ahead. Sasuke followed behind at his own pace, arms crossed and an amused smile playing on his lips.

Naruto grinned even wider, shaking his head as he ran back to Sasuke, slinging an arm around the Uchiha's shoulders, and the two walked out of the field that way, with the sun setting and the wind blowing gently, as they made their way to the ramen noodle shop to get some dinner.

* * *

Heyo, I'll update again soon!


	10. Nine

**Nine - Spending Time Together and A New Mission!**

* * *

The boys ate their ramen quickly, and then Naruto had a second bowl. Sasuke just watched as he ate, his eyes soft.

When the blond finished up, the two left Ichiraku. The sky was a dark twilight, and stars were already out, shining brightly.

The boys looked at each other. "So, uh… you in the mood to do anything else?" Naruto asked, yawning slightly. "It's not that late. If not, I'll probably just head home."

'I really don't want to be alone right now though…' He was thinking.

Sasuke shrugged. "I don't really know," he answered, thrusting his hands into his pockets. "I'm not quite sure when we have to get up tomorrow to meet up at the bridge, but it's probably early. But, I mean, I already know Kakashi will be late, so I don't think it really matters if we do something else tonight before we unwind."

Naruto grinned. "Well do you want to come over to my house?"

Sasuke made a face. "Is it clean?"

Naruto stuck his tongue out. "Yeah, I straightened it up yesterday, believe it!"

"Dobe, I asked if it was clean."

"I just said I straightened–"

"There's a difference between straightened up and clean."

"Only a small one, teme," Naruto huffed, scrunching up his face.

"Yes, but there's still a difference," Sasuke sighed, rolling his eyes.

Naruto just sighed and shook his head. "Would you rather I come over to your house?"

"Not particularly."

"Then what the hell do you want to do?"

"Hn."

"You know, I don't get you sometimes, Sasuke."

Sasuke smirked and turned, walking away.

"Hey, Sasuke, where are you going?"

Sasuke didn't answer, still walking off in the direction of his home.

"Teme!" Naruto shouted, running after him. "Where are you going?"

"Home."

"Guess I'm coming with you," Naruto said with a shrug. Sasuke came to a halt, sighing, before turning around.

"You said you straightened up your house yesterday?"

Naruto smirked. "Yep."

"Come on then, dobe." Sasuke started walking to Naruto's house.

"Aw, but Sasuke, didn't you want to go back to your house?" Naruto teased, smirk still in place. Sasuke glared ahead.

"Just shut up and let's go, usuratonkachi."

Naruto followed, still smirking but not saying a word.

When they arrived, it was completely dark, but the moon and stars lit up the world. Naruto unlocked the door, letting the dark-haired boy inside first.

'Eh, it's not as bad as I thought it would be…' Sasuke thought, but he wouldn't tell the blond that.

Naruto smiled. "Make yourself at home," he said, unzipping his favorite orange jacket and slipping it off, hanging it by the door. "Do you want some tea?" He then asked as he removed his shoes.

"Sure," Sasuke murmured, taking off his shoes and setting them beside Naruto's. As Naruto went off into the kitchen, Sasuke sat down by the coffee table on his hind legs.

Naruto came into the room a couple of minutes later with two hot cups of tea, setting one in front of Sasuke.

"I hope it's okay," the blond uttered, taking a small sip of his tea before setting it down on the table, taking a seat on the small sofa.

"It's fine, thank you," Sasuke said softly, taking a sip.

They sat in comfortable silence, and after a little while, Naruto let out a yawn. Sasuke stood.

"Should I leave?" He asked, stretching.

"No, no, I'm good, I'm just a bit–" Naruto cut himself off with another yawn. "–a bit sleepy…"

"You should sleep then, dobe."

"But I don't want you to go," Naruto whined, stretching as well.

'I don't want to be lonely tonight.'

Sasuke raised an eyebrow. "Why is that?"

"… 'Cause… we're getting along so well…" The blond said with another yawn. He really wanted to say that Sasuke kept him from feeling lonely.

"Hn," Sasuke sighed. "Well then, you want me to stay?"

Naruto shrugged. "I mean, if you want to stay the tonight, you can…"

"Dobe… I mean, why don't I just stay until you fall asleep?"

Naruto looked a bit disappointed. "Alright…"

"Go lie down… I'll come and check on you in a bit to see if you're sleeping."

Naruto nodded and went off into his room. He had lain there for awhile, feeling lonely despite the fact that Sasuke was in the next room.

After about twenty minutes, Sasuke came in. Naruto sat up slightly, and the Uchiha sighed.

"Hey… Sasuke…?" The blonde whispered.

"What?"

"I can't sleep… Would you come lie with me…?"

"Usuratonkachi…" Sasuke let out another sigh, and made his way over to the blond's bed. He was too tired to argue.

He slipped beneath the blankets, pushing the blond over towards the wall more.

"Your bed is pretty small…" He remarked, noticing how he was on the edge and Naruto was as close as possible to the wall but there was little room between them.

"Well, I mean, it's just me always," Naruto said, shrugging. "It's not like I'd need a bigger one, really. I don't usually have people in the same bed as me. Well, I don't ever…" Sasuke found himself blushing and glared at the ramen poster behind the blond.

"Hn, just hush and try to sleep."

Naruto sighed lightly and moved a little closer to Sasuke, trying to get off the wall. He got comfortable and quickly fell asleep.

Sasuke originally planned to lie there until the blond went to sleep, but then when Naruto actually did fall asleep, Sasuke didn't want to move. He was tired and comfortable and he didn't want to wake Naruto.

He found himself drifting off into sleep.

* * *

\- He saw his parents lying dead on the floor, and his older brother standing above them, looking down on the young Uchiha with his Sharingan spinning.

"I- Itachi… why…?" Seven year old Sasuke questioned weakly, tears pouring from his eyes.

"Why?" Itachi asked coldly. "To test my abilities."

"To- To test your abilities…?" The younger Uchiha muttered. "That's why you did this…?"

Things went by so quickly, and Sasuke remembered running – running so far, screaming that he didn't want to die. Itachi came after him.

"To get this power… you must kill your best friend. Just like I did."

And then Sasuke was in the hospital, wishing it was all just a bad dream.

"Sasuke… wake up…" -

Sasuke sat up, panting and drenched in sweat. Putting a hand to his forehead, he closed his eyes and sighed.

Why couldn't he ever forget the massacre? It was always haunting his dreams.

"Sasuke, are you okay?" Naruto asked, lightly touching Sasuke's shoulder. Sasuke then remembered where he was at.

'Dammit… I must've actually fallen asleep next to the dobe…'

"Hn…"

"Was it a nightmare?"

Sasuke didn't answer, but Naruto already knew the answer anyway.

"I get them too, don't worry," the blond said, yawning and he wrapped his arms around the slightly older boy, who blushed lightly. "Try to get some more sleep, okay? I'll be here to keep the bad dreams away…"

Naruto pulled the Uchiha down, holding him in his arms.

"Naruto…"

"Shh… sleep now, Sasuke."

Sasuke found Naruto's gentle hands and squeezed them lightly, closing his eyes.

'Thank you, Naruto…'

* * *

Sasuke awoke early in the morning and sat up, getting out of the blond's bed. He turned and shook Naruto lightly.

"Hey, dobe, wake up," he murmured. When the blond didn't wake up, Sasuke sighed. "Usuratonkachi, wake up… We have to meet at the bridge…"

Naruto groaned, grabbing a pillow and putting over his head. "… don't… wanna…"

Sasuke glared at the boy. "Dobe, if you don't wake up, you might miss out on a mission…"

Naruto stayed silent.

"…And if you miss out on this mission, it may mean you can't become Hokage in the future…"

Naruto shot up. "I'm up, I'm up!"

Sasuke rolled his eyes before smirking. "It's about time, usuratonkachi."

Naruto glared lightly but then hopped up, taking off his nightcap and tossing it onto the bed. He began to quickly unbutton his pajama top, throwing that onto the bed as well. As he was taking off his bottoms, Sasuke noticed the large mark on the blond's stomach.

'What the hell is that…? A seal of some kind…? Hn… It's kind of like my curse mark…'

After realizing he was staring, Sasuke looked away, glaring at the wall as he felt a blush rising. 'I don't think I'll ask him what that's for… Perhaps I'll ask Kakashi-sensei… He should know…'

Sasuke sighed. "Hurry and get dressed, and meet me at the bridge. I have to walk home and shower."

"You can use my shower if you wanna!" Naruto grinned, pulling on a black t-shirt. He grabbed his forehead protecter and put it on. "I'm just gonna get something to eat for breakfast really quick."

And then Naruto dashed out, going into the kitchen to make some ramen.

Sasuke's eyebrows raised, then he went back to his usual stoic expression. "Hn."

Walking to the bathroom, he saw Naruto at the table. "Hey, dobe, you got a spare towel I can use?"

Naruto slurped up his noodles. "Yeah yeah, it's on the shelf in there."

"Hn." Sasuke went into the bathroom.

He took off his armbands and placed them on the counter. After, he kneeled and unwrapped the bandages on his legs, placing them on the counter as well.

He then took off his shirt, and looked into the mirror. Locking eyes with his reflection, he sighed out.

His eyes wandered to the curse mark. The seal that Kakashi-sensei had put on it was there still.

'Why did… why did Orochimaru give this curse mark to me…? Why did he insist I'll come after him… in search of power?'

His eyes narrowed.

'And why do I kind of want to…?'

He tore his gaze away, and finished undressing himself so he could shower.

* * *

Team seven met up at the bridge they always met at, Sakura having gotten there before the boys did. She lit up when she saw Sasuke, running to him and gripping his arm.

"Hi, Sasuke!" She said with a blush. Sasuke glared at her and yanked his arm away.

"Hn."

"Hi, Sakura!" Naruto said cheerfully, beaming.

Sakura sighed out. "Hi, Naruto…"

"When is Kakashi-sensei supposed to be here?" The blond asked, although he knew that it wouldn't be for a while.

Sakura shrugged. "Doesn't matter. He'll still be late, as always."

Sure enough, two hours later, Kakashi finally arrived.

"Yo," the jounin said, appearing on the side of the bridge.

"You're late!" Sakura and Naruto exclaimed simultaneously, glaring at their sensei. Sasuke only sighed.

"I'm sorry, I got lost on the path of life," Kakashi uttered, chuckling lightly.

"Yeah, like we haven't heard that excuse before…" Naruto grumbled.

"You lie too much, sensei," Sakura commented, shaking her head.

"Well… anyway… I've got a few missions available for you guys… so you can choose which one you want to do."

"Ooh, what are they?" Naruto asked excitedly, grinning.

"Well, let's see… I've got… well, this first one is a B-ranked mission, which is retrieving an important stolen treasure. The next is C-ranked – helping an old man build a shed. The next few are D-ranked – Collecting herbs for the hospital, finding a lost cat, helping out a farmer, babysitting a four year old, and walking some dogs."

"We can do the treasure one," Naruto suggested, seeing Sakura nod beside him. "I mean, it's obviously the best one out of all of those."

"Well… the dobe is right for once," Sasuke said, looking bored. Naruto glared at Sasuke for the comment.

"Alright then, it's settled," Kakashi said, smiling. "Let's go."

And they were off.

* * *

A/N

Took me forever but I finally got it done \\(^.^)/ there's three chapters im posting that equal up to 6,000+ words! I hope you enjoyed!


	11. Ten

**Ten - The Worst TThree-Legged Race!**

* * *

.

They came up with a strategy. The three genin would stay on the lookout for the thieves, and if they saw them, they would use a flare to signal Kakashi.

So the genin sat and waited in the trees, watching the path.

They were waiting awhile, but they finally saw the thieves. They were coming down the path with a horse, and the horse was about the fall down a hill. On the horse's back was a wicker basket.

"Be careful with that treasure!" One thief angrily shouted. "Get it together!"

'Treasure…? It must be in the basket…' Naruto thought, eyes narrowing. 'This is my chance…'

The blond leaned forward slightly, and out of the corner of his eye, he saw Sasuke do the same.

The two shared a look, and both lunged forward to grab the wicker basket. They landed on the horse and held on tightly to the basket.

"What do they think they are they doing?!" Sakura whispered furiously, turning around. "We have to signal Kakashi-sensei first!" She pulled out the flare, setting it up.

Naruto and Sasuke, as well as the horse all fell down the hill, due to the horse freaking out.

Sakura finally shot the flare out, but it didn't make it into the sky. One of the thieves shot out some chakra from his wrist and it captured the flame. Then, Sakura's ankle was caught with a chain and she was yanked out of the tree.

The guy that could shoot chakra went after Naruto and Sasuke, shooting chakra at them. The boys held onto the basket as they went down the hill, the horse already had stopped.

As the guy shot another blast of chakra at them that they felt hit them, the treasure fell out of the basket.

"Oh, there's no way I'm losing that!" Sasuke shouted, reaching for the treasure. He grabbed it, but he and Naruto fell off a cliff and into the water way down below.

The thief cursed, and went back to the others.

Sakura was thrown harshly onto the ground at the chakra shooter's – the boss's feet.

"What should we do with her?" A thief asked.

"Are there others with you?" The boss asked the girl, but Sakura didn't answer. He slapped her harshly across the face.

"We'll just hold her hostage."

* * *

Sasuke and Naruto were panting, laying side-by-side, soaking wet. Sasuke raised his right arm that held the treasure.

"I can't believe… the treasure… is just a teddy bear…" Naruto said, and Sasuke dropped his hand.

"Do you think the signal…" Sasuke began, panting still. Naruto looked at him. "The signal Sakura was supposed to send out… what if it didn't go off? What if she didn't get the chance…?"

"You think Sakura was captured?!" Naruto asked, eyes wide. "We've got to save her!"

Naruto stood, and Sasuke felt himself being pulled. The boys looked at each other and then freaked out.

Their hands were stuck together.

"What is this?!" The boys exclaimed simultaneously, looking at the chakra that bound their hands together.

After a few moments of freaking out, they finally calmed down a bit.

"It- It's like some sort of chakra…" Sasuke murmured, and Naruto made a noise of agreement.

They needed it to break. They glanced at each other.

Then they pulled, pulling as far away as possible from each other, trying to get the damn thing to break.

It stretched and stretched, and then the boys were pulled back and they slammed into each other.

"What now?" Sasuke asked, sighing out as he rubbed his head.

Next they tried punching a wall, but that didn't work either, so they climbed up really high, standing on the edge beside the waterfall. There was a thick rock sticking out of the waterfall they were going to try to break it on.

The boys looked at each other and nodded once.

They jumped.

The chakra stretched over the rock, and the force of the waterfall held the boys under the water, and they were struggling and lacking air. The chakra sent them flying back up into the air though.

The boys' eyes widened drastically, and for the second time in their lives, they kissed.

Their lips stayed locked as they fell back into the water with a large splash, coming up for air a second later, coughing.

"Why do I always end up kissing you?" Sasuke asked, eyes narrowed.

"You took the words right out of my mouth," Naruto replied, and brought his hand up that was still connected to Sasuke's. The two shuddered lightly and blushed.

After they climbed out of the water, they sat there on the ground a moment.

"We really need to save Sakura," Naruto said, getting up, grabbing the treasure and running, dragging Sasuke across the ground.

"Hey, usuratonkachi! Stop, you idiot!" Sasuke shouted, swinging his leg around to trip Naruto, who fell on top of him.

"Sasuke, what the hell are you doing?!"

Sasuke winced, blushing lightly. "You need to stop for a minute, dobe!"

Naruto sat up slightly. "But we need to save Sakura! What if she's hurt?!"

"We can't go after her, Naruto!"

"Why not?! You know, it's like you don't care at all…!"

"I do care, dobe… We're just not going to be much help to her like this. I think we should go find Kakashi-sensei."

"I just– I don't want to be called scum…" Naruto admitted, eyes downcast, remembering what Kakashi once said.

\- Those who abandon their friends are worse than scum. -

"That's why we have to go after Sakura as soon as possible!"

Naruto's eyes narrowed and he picked up the treasure. He raised it above his head.

"Naruto, what the hell are you doing?!"

As Naruto brought it down, Sasuke closed his eyes, bracing himself, flinching slightly as it hit the chakra on their hands and not him.

"Dammit," Naruto said as he hit it again. And again. "Dammit… Dammit… Dammit…" And again.

"Well," Sasuke sighed, looking up at the blond's face as he kept trying to break the chakra. "Those who abandon their missions are scum, too."

Naruto stopped, holding the treasure in midair. He let it fall beside Sasuke. "I gotta pee."

Sasuke's eyes widened. "You– you what?!"

"I said I gotta take a leak!" Naruto said again, getting up and dragging Sasuke over to a rock.

"Hey, what in the hell?" Sasuke said, embarrassed and uncomfortable.

"Oh, one handed then," Naruto murmured to himself, unzipping his pants.

"Can't you hold it?!"

"I'm sorry, Sasuke, but when you gotta go, you gotta go…"

"Hey, watch out…!" Sasuke exclaimed, trying to pull away. "Not so close! You're gonna splash it on me!"

"I'm sorry!"

"Just try to hold it, usuratonkachi!"

"I can't!"

"Stop, Naruto! Zip it up!"

The two stumbled a bit, until they heard someone else using the bathroom as well, and the two boys stopped, staring at one of the thieves from before.

The guy turned around and Naruto just zipped up his pants.

"Hey, it's you two!" The thief exclaimed, turning around and pulling out some chains.

Naruto tried to create the hand sign for the shadow clone jutsu, but he couldn't.

"You can't make signs without your other hand, dobe!"

"We don't have time for this!" Naruto growled, pulling out a kunai as well. "If I have to, I'll cut off my own arm, and then I'll go after Sakura!"

As Naruto tried to get close to the thief, he got caught up in the chains.

"You're so reckless!" Sasuke said, kicking the guy, which knocked him out.

Sasuke sighed. "Maybe we should go after Sakura…"

"Sasuke…"

Sasuke turned to the blond. "But we're going to have to work together."

Naruto grinned, standing, but then he scrunched up his face. "Oh, I forgot… I still have to pee…"

Sasuke sighed again, turning his face away. "Me too," he muttered.

Naruto grinned again, clasping Sasuke's shoulder for a moment, before the two went back to the rock together silently.

A bit later, the thieves were talking. "I wonder what's taking that idiot so long…" One said to another.

"Hey!"

"You!"

The thieves looked up, and so did Sakura.

'Sasuke… Naruto…'

"Are their hands no longer bound?" Someone asked.

"Nope, we're free," Sasuke lied, a smirk on his face. He held up the gold bear treasure. "Here, we'll give you this if you give us our friend back." Sasuke took a step forward.

"If you're really free, then come here!" The boss shouted. "Come on!"

Sasuke signaled to Naruto with his eyes to take a step forward. Then Naruto did, and signaled to Sasuke with his own eyes. They kept going forward slowly.

"Say, why are you gritting your teeth so hard?" The guy asked, smirking. "And you're sweating! Your veins are practically popping out of your skin! You're not really free!"

A bunch of the thieves came after them.

"Dammit, they caught our bluff," Sasuke uttered. "Naruto, now!"

And then Naruto let go, and was swung around the tree, into a guy. They fought off all of the guys except the boss of the thieves. He kept shooting chakra, but was caught off guard by Sasuke's words.

"Fire style…!"

The thief looked and the boys' hands formed the sign for the shadow clone jutsu.

"Shadow clone jutsu!" Naruto finished, and the guy gasped.

"Just kidding," Sasuke said, chuckling. "Even if we could weave signs, we can't mold our chakra."

"But we do got something else for you!" Naruto said with a smirk, and the boys used the chakra as a slingshot and slung the treasure at the guy, which knocked him out.

* * *

Kakashi was staring at the busted bear treasure. "Well… maybe it can be melted down and be recast…"

"Thank you for saving me, Sasuke!" Sakura exclaimed, hugging the boy. Sasuke glared and pushed her away.

"Hey, Sakura, you know I helped too…" Naruto murmured, kicking at the ground a little.

"Yeah, whatever," Sakura said.

"So, really, Kakashi-sensei…" Naruto began, pulling a bit, stretching the chakra. "You can't do anything about this?!"

Sakura sighed. "No, Naruto. Remember, the guy said it would just crumble and fall apart in two to three days."

Sasuke's eyes widened. "If I have to be around him for that long, I'll kill him," he stated, pushing Naruto away.

'Well,' he was thinking. 'Maybe it won't be entirely bad… if he's quiet… It might be better than being lonely…'

"Hey, that's my line!"

The two pushed at each other for a bit, until…

"Uh-oh," Naruto said. "I gotta go again…"

"A- Again?!" Sasuke all but spluttered.

"Yep…" The blond replied, placing a hand on Sasuke's shoulder. "And this time, it's number two."

Naruto began to drag Sasuke away. "Naruto, don't you dare!"

"Come on, we already peed together…"

"Yeah, but this is worse!"

Sakura looked mortified.

* * *

A/N

I did my best to kinda recreate this episode and i hope it worked! Also, I know in the episode, Sakura has long hair, but when I started this fic, I never saw that episode yet so I kinda skipped past where it took place, and so I decided to put it around here instead but Sakura has short hair -.-;; and also, i know its a filler episode bUt i couldn't let this slip by me! Anyways, i hope you liked this!


	12. Eleven

**Eleven - Sticking Together: Nice Words and Jealously!**

* * *

They went back to the Hidden Leaf, making there right after dark.

"So, how are you going to work this out?" Kakashi asked Naruto and Sasuke lazily, looking as bored as he usually does.

"Huh?" Naruto asked, and Kakashi gestured to the blond's and Sasuke's bound hands. "Dammit, I forgot about this…"

"How could you forget when I'm literally attached to you, dobe?"

"Shut up, teme!"

"Both of you, knock it off," Kakashi demanded, causing the boys to shut their mouths. "Now, what are you planning to do? One of you will have to stay at the other's house, share a bed big enough for the two of you, etcetera, etcetera."

The boys blushed lightly and looked at each other.

"Then we'll have to stay at my house," Sasuke said, sighing. "My bed is big enough for us to share."

"Alright then, see you guys later," Kakashi uttered, smiling lightly, before disappearing in a puff of smoke.

"Maybe I can come over for a little while?" Sakura asked, smiling lightly. Sasuke let out another sigh.

"Come on, then."

Sakura looked surprised for a moment. Then she quickly gathered herself and smiled, nodding once.

Sasuke began walking in the direction of his home, dragging the blond behind him, Sakura walking beside them.

"Hey, slow down!" Naruto said agitatedly, squinting.

Sasuke shot a glare in the blond's direction, and still kept going at the pace he was previously.

"Bastard," Naruto mumbled, glaring at the back of Sasuke's head.

"Hn."

"Don't be rude, Naruto," Sakura reproved, sending a mild glare at the blond as well. "Sasuke is the one letting you stay at his house, you know. Least you could do is say thank you."

"What are you, my mother?" Naruto grumbled, glaring at the two of them.

"Well, Naruto, I guess you'd think that because you don't have one, after all," Sakura retorted, glaring harshly now.

Naruto felt a stab at his heart from that comment, and shut up, eyes downcast. Sasuke sent a glare at Sakura, which she saw and made her feel guilty.

"Be quiet," he growled, and Sakura turned away from Naruto.

When they finally arrived at the Uchiha compound, Sasuke dragged Naruto all the way up to his house, Sakura following silently. Sasuke opened the door and stepped inside, stepping out of his shoes before reaching up behind his head and untying his headband.

Naruto did the same, setting his stuff with Sasuke's. The two made their way into the room more, letting Sakura take off her shoes.

Sasuke turned to Naruto. "If you'd like to get clean later, there's a hot spring outside. Although… I'm not sure how we'll get our shirts off unless we cut them off."

"You are not cutting my clothes off," Naruto growled, eyes narrowing.

Sasuke rolled his eyes. "Whatever then, but I still want to clean myself. Then I want to get something for dinner and head to bed."

"You know, I can sew your clothes back up if you cut them, Naruto," Sakura said, sighing.

Sasuke grabbed a knife from the kitchen counter, taking it to the left side of his shirt.

He stopped. He wasn't really sure if he could do it by himself.

"I, um, I can help you with that," Sakura said, blushing lightly.

Sasuke nodded and handed her the knife, and she took it and cut cleanly along the seam.

"I'll take this home with me and sew it up for you," she murmured, stepping away to cut Naruto's jacket and shirt off.

As Sasuke went to take his shirt off completely, he remembered the curse mark, and how he still didn't think Naruto knew – and didn't want Naruto to know – about it. But still, he took off his shirt, putting it on the counter.

"Thanks, Sakura," he murmured, taking off the band on his left arm.

"You're welcome," Sakura replied, smiling as she helped Naruto out of his jacket.

"Yeah, thanks…" Naruto muttered, taking his shirt off.

Sakura helped Sasuke with his other armband and his leg bands, blushing at how close she was to him… especially while he was shirtless.

Naruto looked at the seal on his stomach that kept the Nine-Tails within him.

'I wonder if they'll ask about it…'

"Sakura," Sasuke murmured, and she looked at him as she set his stuff on the counter. "Do you think you could take those clothes home now and try to have them fixed by tomorrow afternoon?"

Sakura blushed again. "Yes, of course." She grabbed the clothing and smiled at the two of them. "See you tomorrow, Sasuke, Naruto." And with that, she left.

Sasuke let out a sigh. "Good… I didn't want her spying on us while we were bathing."

"Yeah…" Naruto said quietly, which made Sasuke look at him, eyebrows furrowed.

"What's the matter, dobe?"

"Huh? Oh, it's nothing, let's just go outside."

Sasuke nodded, not pressing the issue, but he knew that Naruto was lying.

Naruto looked utterly depressed.

'It's probably because of what Sakura said…' Sasuke thought to himself.

Sasuke grabbed two pairs of his pajama pants for him and Naruto, and then the two walked outside where the hot spring was, the full moon illuminating the water and the boys' skin and hair.

Sasuke reached down and popped open the button on his white shorts, undoing the zipper before he pushed his shorts and underwear down his legs with a bit of difficulty. Out of the corner of his eye, he saw Naruto doing the same thing.

When the two were completely naked, they climbed into the spring. It only went up to Sasuke's upper thighs, but on Naruto, it went almost up to his bottom. The two sat down, the water now up to their mid chest.

They were silent for a bit, before Sasuke spoke up.

"It's because of what Sakura said," he murmured, causing Naruto to look at him. "The whole thing about you not having a mother. That's why you're upset."

Naruto didn't know what to say. Sasuke was right, of course, and the blond couldn't find any words to say. He was also afraid that Sasuke would make fun of him for not having a mother if he did tell the dark haired boy he was right.

"Don't you dare listen to her, Naruto." That caught the whiskered blond off guard.

Sasuke looked at Naruto now, eyes firm, before going soft.

"Don't listen to her, because she's wrong. You had a mother once, who gave you the life you're now living, and I'm sure loved you with all her being. You had a father too, who I'm sure loved you just as much. And even though you don't know their names, or what they looked like, and even though they couldn't be here for you and you grew up all alone, and not knowing why, and not knowing what happened to them or how they died – which I bet was for something important… perhaps you – but even though they're gone, I bet that wherever they are, they're watching down on you, keeping you safe and loving you still, and I'm sure that they're so proud of you, for staying strong even after everything you've been through. I bet they're proud of your gutsiness, and I bet they're proud of you for being so kind when you were treated so poorly and unfairly. I bet they're proud that you're becoming a fine ninja, maybe like they were. And I bet they're proud of you for just being yourself. Don't let Sakura make you feel sad and alone because you don't have parents anymore. Instead, just be happy because you had them once, even for a little while. Just like that saying – don't be sad because it's over, smile because it happened. And if your parents were awful people, then you're better off without them anyway… Naruto, you don't have to feel alone anymore, you know. Even if your parents are gone, you still have a family. You have me, Sakura, Kakashi-sensei and Iruka-sensei. And you have your friends, too… You don't have to be alone. Just– just don't forget that."

Naruto had already been in tears, sobbing lightly as Sasuke's words sunk deep into him.

'He makes me feel… like… like I'm someone worth noticing… like I'm worth something… I… It makes me feel loved and not all alone anymore…'

Naruto used his free arm to hug the other boy beside him, still sobbing lightly.

After a moment, he pulled away. "T- Thank you… Sasuke…" He wiped his tears away, smiling lightly. "Y- You know… You don't have to be alone anymore either…"

Sasuke cast down his eyes, nodding.

"I'm always here for you," Naruto said, patting the other's shoulder.

After a moment, Sasuke blushed furiously, punching the blond in the arm with his free hand, shooting a glare at the water.

"Ow!" Naruto exclaimed, glaring at the dark haired boy. "What the hell was that for?!"

"Don't ever tell anyone about this, usuratonkachi," Sasuke warned, and Naruto instantly smiled, chuckling.

"I won't… I promise."

After the two were done bathing, they dried themselves and dressed their lower halves, going into the kitchen afterwards to grab something to eat.

After that, the two headed off to Sasuke's room to try and get some sleep. They climbed into the decent sized bed, getting comfortable.

"Goodnight, dobe," Sasuke said softly, closing his eyes.

Naruto turned onto his side, facing the other boy, who was lying on his back. "Night… teme."

He didn't close his eyes though, and his eyes wandered over Sasuke's pale form. His eyes caught sight of the mark the dark haired boy had. Naruto's eyebrows furrowed, and he reached out, touching it lightly.

Sasuke tensed up, eyes flying open.

"Sasuke… what's this…?"

Sasuke didn't answer. He took a deep breath, closing his eyes for a moment. "Don't worry about it… dobe… It's not important."

'He noticed…'

"But… I'm just concerned… I always see you touching it in pain and stuff…"

"Well, if you must know, it was from Orochimaru… It's a curse mark."

Naruto gasped, sitting up. "O- Orochimaru…?! Curse mark…?"

Sasuke sighed. "Yeah. Anyway, don't worry about it and go to sleep, usuratonkachi. Like I said, it's not important." Sasuke closed his eyes again.

Naruto lay back down, nodding. "Okay…"

"Hn…"

* * *

A couple days later and the chakra had crumbled, just like Sakura had said. The boys had gotten dressed properly and headed out, off to go meet Kakashi and Sakura at the bridge.

Sakura was there, but Kakashi wasn't yet. Sakura waved at them.

"Hi Sasuke!" She said, smiling. "Hey Naruto! It's good to see you two again! I see the chakra broke! I told you it would!"

Sasuke raised an eyebrow, and Naruto was grinning.

"Hey Sakura…"

"Hn…"

Sakura giggled a bit awkwardly. "Oh, and Naruto… I'm sorry about what I said the other day…"

"It's okay, Sakura, I forgive you." The blond grinned.

"Good, because I was wondering if you wanted to go on a date with me. Before this upcoming mission Kakashi-sensei told me about."

That caught both boys off guard. Sasuke didn't show it on his face much, but his eyebrow raised a bit higher, if possible. However, Naruto's jaw had dropped.

The boys were both thinking the same thing: 'What?!'

"I'm sorry, Sakura, what did you just say?"

Sakura blushed a bit and her eye twitched. "I– um… I asked if you wanted to go on a date with me… maybe tomorrow night? Or maybe the night after?"

Sasuke glanced at Naruto, who was smiling widely, nodding.

Sasuke frowned.

"Yeah!" Naruto exclaimed. "I'd love to! Believe it!"

Sakura smiled, her eyes closed, giggling. "Great!"

Sasuke, for once, looked pretty shocked.

Sakura pretended not to notice, and Naruto didn't.

When Kakashi arrived a bit later, he informed them they had no missions for the day and told the boys about their mission they had about a week. Then Kakashi was gone.

"Well, I'm going to go tell Ino and Hinata about my date!" Sakura said, turning and waving. "Bye Naruto, bye Sasuke!" And then she ran off.

"Can you believe it, Sasuke?" Naruto asked as he watched Sakura run down the street. "Can you believe that she asked me out? I guess she finally woke up, huh?"

"Sure, whatever, loser…" Sasuke snapped, glaring at nothing in particular, a scowl on his face still. He didn't know why he was so angry. Naruto paid no attention to Sasuke's anger and the two started walking.

'Hn, what do I care anyway? It's not like I care about what Naruto and Sakura do… together…' Sasuke looked even angrier, if possible. 'Because I don't care. No big deal. Good for them. You know, I'm glad Sakura asked the dobe out. It'll get her off my back for once, huh?'

But in all honesty, Sasuke really did care. He wondered why Sakura suddenly showed interest in Naruto when just the other day, she acted like she hated his guts and was barely acknowledging him. He wondered why Naruto agreed to go on the date. He wondered why Naruto even liked Sakura, and he wondered why he seemed so… so…

Jealous.

'I'm not jealous,' he told himself, grinding his teeth together. 'Why would I be jealous? There's nothing to be jealous of. I definitely don't like Sakura, and I absolutely don't like Naruto… Why would I? They're both annoying…'

Sasuke continued telling himself he wasn't jealous, but it wasn't so convincing when he felt a pang in his heart every time he thought of the two together.

"I'm so excited!" Naruto exclaimed, practically bouncing beside Sasuke, who looked like he wanted to murder someone.

* * *

A/N

Hey, I know it took me awhile to get these posted and i know there's only three chapters th I time, and I'm sorry! ( .') by there's 6,000+ words worth, so its the same as last time i updated. Anyways, I hope you enjoyed!


	13. Twelve

**Twelve | A Talk With Kakashi-sensei**

* * *

"So, Sasuke… where are we going?"

Sasuke sighed as he and Naruto walked together, not going anywhere in particular. "Hn."

"Is that your answer for everything?" The blond boy asked, stopping in his tracks. Sasuke looked at him.

"No."

Naruto's eyes narrowed. "Ugh." He began walking again.

Sasuke rolled his eyes. "Dobe."

The two walked to the training grounds without thinking of it.

"Naruto, Sasuke!"

Sasuke scowled. Rock Lee.

"Hey, Bushy-Brow!" Naruto said, grinning again.

"It is great to see you both!" Lee voiced, grinning as well.

"Hey Neji, Tenten," the blond greeted, receiving a smile from Tenten and a nod from Neji.

"So guess what happened to me today!" Naruto said happily, smiling widely. Sasuke frowned. "Sakura asked me out!"

Lee stopped smiling for a moment, before he smiled again. "Wow, Naruto! That is great!"

Sasuke knew how fake that smile of Lee's was.

"I think I'm going to go," Sasuke said abruptly, turning away. "See you later, usuratonkachi."

Naruto scowled at the nickname. "Whatever, teme."

"Why are you leaving?" Lee asked, but Neji glared at the bushy eyebrowed boy, which made Lee shut up.

Sasuke didn't answer, and began walking off, still upset.

"I wonder what is up with him…" Sasuke heard Lee murmur.

"He's always like that," Naruto told him, which was the last thing Sasuke heard before he was out of earshot.

Sasuke walked, glaring at the ground in front of him, thinking to himself. He didn't notice there was someone right in front of him and he bumped into Sakura.

"Sasuke!" She exclaimed, smiling with a nervous chuckle and a blush.

"Hn," he replied with a scowl, glaring at her. He turned to walk away.

"Where are you going?"

Sasuke stopped walking, but didn't answer.

"Anyways, I was just going to see Naruto!" Sakura said, smiling a bit. "I was going to tell him that our date should be tonight instead!"

Sasuke's eyes narrowed, getting angry again.

"Why are you telling me this?" Sasuke asked coldly, his tone aggressive. "I really don't care."

"Oh," Sakura murmured, surprised. "Sorry…"

"Tch, whatever. You're so annoying." Sasuke started walking away again, leaving Sakura alone.

"Dammit," Sakura mumbled under her breath, feeling hurt, walking quickly towards where Sasuke came from. Her plan to use Naruto to make Sasuke jealous had failed. But still, if she kept pushing, maybe Sasuke would come through.

Sasuke let his feet take him wherever, and in little time, he found himself at the dock he still sometimes sat on to be alone. He started coming to the spot a lot after the massacre, and whenever he went to be alone or to think when he was feeling really sad, he'd either dip his feet in the water or bring his knees to his chest and just stare at the water.

It was his place. Ever since he was seven. Ever since he was alone.

The thirteen year old sat down, knees to his chest, staring at the water. For some reason, he was just so angry and lonely. More than usual. He felt like he wanted to fight the world, but at the same time, hide away from the world.

He was mad at Sakura. He was mad at Naruto.

He pretended he didn't know why, because wasn't pretending supposed to make everything better?

He was mad at Sakura for asking Naruto out, and he was mad at Naruto for accepting. He was angrier at himself though, for feeling this way. Of course Naruto was going to accept Sakura's date proposal; Naruto had a huge crush on the pink haired girl, and he was a thirteen year old boy who'd never been kissed by any girl (because Naruto, so far, had kissed Sasuke twice) and had never gone on a date.

And Sakura… Sasuke knew that Sakura was probably just toying with Naruto… after all, Sakura could be such a… such a… bitch.

That's the only word he could think of. She was being a bitch. She obviously didn't care about how Naruto felt if she was using him like… like some object.

Sasuke livid at her for her heartless actions. 'She better not hurt him…' He scowled at nothing in particular.

Sasuke heard footsteps behind him, but didn't look. When the person sat beside him and patted him on the shoulder, he sighed out.

"Sasuke, what's troubling you?"

"It's nothing, Kakashi-sensei…" Sasuke lied, still glaring at the water– at his reflection.

"It's about Sakura and Naruto, isn't it?" Kakashi asked, smiling a bit amusedly at the boy's jealousness. "I'm pretty sure it's not going to last. I don't agree with it, but I presume Sakura's trying to make you fall for her by using Naruto to make you jealous. I see that it worked…"

"It didn't work, because I'm not jealous of Naruto, and don't like Sakura!" Sasuke growled, eyes narrowing. Kakashi lazily raised an eyebrow. "I don't even see why she likes me in the first place. I have no reason to love her and she has no reason to love me."

"You don't need a reason to love someone, Sasuke. You just love them. That's all there is to it. You just love them, because, well… it's them."

Sasuke's eyes widened a bit, before he narrowed them again and glared at Kakashi out of the corners of his eyes. "… Hn, whatever."

"Why are you so upset, Sasuke?" Kakashi questioned, looking at his student a bit sympathetically. "If you don't like Sakura and aren't jealous, then what is it?"

"Just– just forget it."

"Come on, talk to me."

But Sasuke didn't say anything. He was afraid to say how he truly felt.

"You can tell me, Sasuke. You know, whatever is said between us, stays with us."

Sasuke looked at Kakashi finally, then let his gaze fall back to the water.

"It stays between us?" The dark haired boy asked.

Kakashi nodded lightly. "Yes, of course."

Sasuke was silent for a few moments.

He swallowed.

'Here goes everything,' he thought with a sigh. He was about to admit his feelings to his sensei, but more importantly, he was about to admit his feelings to himself.

"I…" He began, licking his dry lips, trying to swallow because it felt as if his throat was drying up and closing up on him. "Well…"

"It's okay, take your time."

Sasuke nodded, digging his fingernails into his palms. "I think…" He began slowly, never taking his eyes away from the water. "I think I…" He blushed and frowned, looking at his knees now.

"Well, I think I like Naruto…" He admitted, glaring at his knees. "More than a friend…"

'Well, now it's out there in the open…'

Kakashi's visible eyebrow raised again. "Naruto, huh? Not all that surprising actually…"

"What the hell do you mean 'it's not all that surprising'?" Sasuke questioned irritably, glowering at his sensei.

Kakashi chuckled. "Nothing, nothing…"

"No, tell me! Is it obvious?"

"No, it's not obvious. It's just because I just so happen to be a close observer that I noticed."

Sasuke blushed furiously. "So you knew…" He muttered.

"I had my speculations…" Kakashi murmured.

"How…?"

"Just think, Sasuke. You two understand each other more than anyone will understand you two, in more ways than you probably know. It's easy to tell you're close to him. And sometimes, when you're close to someone, it becomes easy to fall for them. When you look deep enough, it's not hard to tell. And besides… you've kissed him… twice. You two haven't even kissed any girls yet."

Sasuke blushed again. "Those were accidents…"

"Everything happens for a reason."

"Whatever. But I'm still not going to tell Naruto about my feelings. They'll go away eventually."

"Eh, maybe, but that's your choice."

"Hn."

"Are you feeling a bit better now?"

"No, I still think Sakura's a bitch and I'm still mad."

"Sasuke… don't call Sakura a bitch."

"Well, she's acting like one."

"I know, but she's still your teammate, y'know."

Sasuke rolled his eyes and sighed. "I don't know what to do. Sakura is using Naruto like a toy… I can't stand it."

"Naruto will learn for himself that Sakura has no interest in him," Kakashi told his student. "He will learn that what he has for her is only a childish crush, and nothing as serious as love. When she dumps him, he'll realize this. He'll stop chasing her. You'll have a chance to make a move on Naruto then, y'know."

"I don't care if I'll have a chance. I don't want one. I'm not going to act on my feelings. Naruto will only get in the way of my goal if I do."

Kakashi let out a sigh. "Are you afraid of what others will think because of your genders?"

"I don't care about what people will think."

"But you do care about your clan's name."

"Tch, so?"

"Is it rejection you're afraid of, Sasuke?"

"I'm not afraid of anything, so just… shut up."

"Okay, fine. Tell him or don't, but believe me, if you don't, you'll be sorry."

"Hn."

Kakashi stood up. "Now, I'm going to go and get some lunch."

"Wait, sensei…?"

Kakashi looked at Sasuke. "Hm?"

Sasuke let out a nervous breath. "What… what's that mark on Naruto's stomach for?"

Kakashi looked a bit taken aback. "Well, uhm… I'm sorry, Sasuke, but I can't tell you."

"Why not?" Sasuke asked irritatedly.

"It's not my place to."

"Hn," Sasuke replied, huffing and turning away from the jounin. "Fine."

"Anyway… would you care to join me for lunch?"

But Sasuke didn't answer, and so Kakashi just shrugged and disappeared.

Sasuke sighed and looked over at the spot where Kakashi was sitting. He shook his head when he realized Kakashi left his book on accident. He'd have to give it back to him the next time he saw him.

He looked out at the water again, looking at his reflection.

* * *

A/N

Hey, sorry it took so long and i barely have anything to show for it... I have two chapters... heh.. anyways, I hope you like this


	14. Thirteen

**Thirteen | A Tempting Decision: Fights, Feelings and Kisses**

* * *

Sometime later, as it was getting close to being dark out, Sasuke left the dock and just began walking aimlessly.

He walked throughout the leaf village, not really knowing where he was headed. Little lights that were strung up around the whole village lit up the pathways.

Sasuke wondered where Sakura and Naruto were at the moment.

He didn't really think he wanted to know.

He walked until he saw the open gates. No one was around to guard them.

'I could just go to Orochimaru so easily right now… no one would know… no one could stop me…'

Sasuke took a step forward, then stopped.

'No, I shouldn't… I can't…'

Sasuke reached up and touched the curse mark.

'But…'

Sasuke took another step forward.

'It is pretty tempting…'

He stared ahead.

'I could just leave... maybe I should just leave...'

Another step. 'It'd be alright.' Another. 'This way, I can get stronger to kill Itachi...'

Sasuke kept walking towards the open gates, until–

"S- Sasuke?"

Sasuke turned his head to see that shy girl Hinata watching him. "Hn," is all he gave for a reply.

"I um… do you know where Naruto is?"

Sasuke rolled his eyes. "On a date with Sakura. Didn't you hear?"

Hinata looked disappointed. "O- Oh… Um… Sorry for bothering you…"

And with that, Hinata ran off. Sasuke rolled his eyes and turned back to the gate.

"This is stupid…" He murmured to himself. "What am I doing? I can't leave now... maybe another time..." He turned from the gates and walked the way to his house.

It didn't take long for him to get there. He let himself in and pulled off his shoes, then he took his headband off and set Kakashi's book down on the table.

He decided to make dinner for himself next. He cooked stewed tomatoes over sticky white rice and at that.

After, since it was dark and he had nothing better to do, he decided that he wanted to sit in his room and read some scrolls.

When he walked into his room, he looked at the picture of his team. He barely smiled and stripped himself to change into his bed clothes.

He climbed into bed, but he forgot to grab any scrolls. He sighed and just lay down instead.

After a few minutes of deciding whether or not to sleep, Sasuke remembered Kakashi's book and sat up. He climbed out of bed and went to fetch the book.

'Should I really read it though?' Sasuke asked himself. 'Isn't it something really perverted?'

Sasuke went back into his room, sitting down on his bed with the book in hand. He took a deep breath and opened it.

Sasuke read a bit of it and blushed, slamming the book closed.

"Ugh, what the hell does Kakashi even read?"

After a moment, Sasuke's curiosity got the better of him and he opened the book back up, face bright red.

But before he even got to read a word, there was a knock on his front door. Sasuke closed the book and tossed it under his bed, getting up and running to his front door.

He took a deep breath before opening it, frowning at who was standing on his front porch.

"Naruto… what do you want?" Sasuke asked, his voice deep and dark, eyes narrowing.

Naruto looked up at the dark haired boy, then lowered his eyes back down to the ground. "Can I please come in?" He asked quietly, ignoring Sasuke's previous question.

Sasuke gave him a questioning look, but stepped aside and let the blond boy in. Naruto walked into the middle of the room, keeping his back to Sasuke, who'd crossed his arms.

"Why are you here, dobe?" Sasuke inquired, eyebrows furrowed. "I thought you were supposed to be on a date with Sakura."

Naruto let out a sigh. "Yeah, I was supposed to be on a date with her…"

"Then why are you here?"

Naruto turned slightly. "All throughout the date, she seemed distracted, and when we were done eating and I offered to walk her home, she said she was fine. Then I… I tried to kiss her, but she turned away and told me that we shouldn't go on dates or anything anymore, because she didn't feel a connection or something and apparently it wasn't working out for her."

Sasuke's eyes narrowed again, and he gritted his teeth to stop himself from yelling. "Hn. That's all she said?"

Naruto nodded. "And you know, I think it's because she likes you still. I don't think she could ever feel that way about me… because she'll always be hung up on you… you… you bastard…"

"It's not my fault, usuratonkachi," Sasuke retorted, walking towards the other boy. "I could care less if she likes me or not. Just like I could care less about whether or not Sakura likes you."

Naruto's face held a look of slight anger. "What do you even care about, Sasuke?!" He shouted, teeth gritting.

Sasuke glared at the blond. "Why are you even here?!" He snapped, stepping close to the blond ninja. He grabbed the front of younger boy's jacket, yanking him close enough for their noses to touch. Sasuke glared at the boy, growling. "Why'd you come? You just want someone to fight with, right? Someone to take your anger out on?"

Naruto flushed a furious shade of red, glaring back and trying to push the older boy away. "So what if that's all I'm here for?!" Naruto yelled back, grabbing Sasuke's wrist. "So what if I just want a fight, huh?! You wouldn't be of much use if that's not what I came here for, you emotionless bastard!"

"Oh, screw you," Sasuke growled lowly, jerking the blond that he still had a hold of. "You're such a useless little dead-last. You're nothing but a loser, a write-off. You can't do anything right, can you?"

"You're one to talk, Mr. Always-Second-Best."

Sasuke's grip on the jacket tightened and his eyes narrowed further. "…What'd you just say?! Who told you that?"

"Kakashi-sensei told me that when it was between you and Itachi, you were always second best. Not good enough for your father, huh?"

"Shut up! At least I had a father! You don't know me at all!"

"You jerk!" Naruto took a swing at the Uchiha, which Sasuke blocked.

"Get out," Sasuke spat, about to let go of the blond, when Naruto grabbed a hold of the slightly older boy's navy blue shirt, holding him in place so he could punch him.

He landed a punch on Sasuke's cheek, which made Sasuke let go of Naruto's jacket.

"Usuratonkachi," Sasuke mumbled, grabbing his cheek. Naruto let go of him, and then Sasuke used the chance to punch Naruto in the stomach. Naruto fell back, clutching his stomach.

"… Jerk…"

Both boys stood there, panting and glaring at each other.

"Dammit, Naruto…" Sasuke murmured, pulling his hand away from his face. He frowned. "Why did you come here in the first place? You keep avoiding the question."

Naruto sighed, sitting down on the floor. "I came because I thought you'd comfort me… Isn't that what friends do? But then you started arguing with me."

Sasuke also sighed, pinching the bridge of his nose. "You idiot…"

"What?" Naruto asked incredulously.

Sasuke shook his head. "Nothing."

He didn't want to point out the fact that Naruto started their fight, and cause another fight.

"Hmph, whatever," Naruto muttered, crossing his arms and closing his eyes.

"Hn."

Naruto stood, brushing himself off. "Anyway, I guess I'll just leave."

"Whatever."

Naruto glared at the dark haired boy. "You know, you never answered my question earlier."

"Tch, what question, dobe?"

"I asked if there was anything you cared about."

"Hn, but that question was rhetorical."

"No, it wasn't."

Sasuke sighed. "Let's not start this again, usuratonkachi."

"Hey, I answered your question, now answer mine!"

"Shut up and let's get this whole comforting thing over with."

"Not until you answer my question, teme!"

Sasuke rolled his eyes. "Fine!" He exclaimed, exasperated. "I care about avenging my clan. I care about revenge. Is that enough for you?"

"There's not a person on this earth that you care about, Sasuke…?" Naruto asked, his voice soft and quiet.

"Hn…" Sasuke murmured, sighing out. 'I really don't want to tell him…'

"I guess I'll just leave then…" Naruto muttered, walking to the door. Sasuke followed behind him, opening the door for him.

Naruto stepped out, before turning back to the older boy.

"Sasuke…?"

"What, dobe…?" Sasuke's voice was unusually soft.

Naruto stepped closer – leaving a little over a foot of distance between them–, face to face with the dark haired boy. "Do you care about me…?" He asked, his cheeks a dusty pink.

Sasuke's cheeks lit up a bright red, his lips parting. "I…"

Naruto moved a bit closer, not quite sure of himself, not quite sure of what he was doing, what he was thinking, what he was saying.

He lightly touched Sasuke's chest. He felt the dark haired boy's heart beating rapidly.

"Sasuke…" Naruto whispered, staring at the Uchiha's lips.

Before either of them were really aware of it, Naruto had pressed their lips together lightly. A gentle, closed-mouthed kiss.

Naruto pulled back barely a second later. Both of the boys blushed again.

But Sasuke didn't say or do anything, and Naruto got a bit worried. He was afraid Sasuke would hit him or yell at him for what he just did.

But nothing came.

Sasuke slowly lifted his hand, and Naruto braced himself, closing his eyes. 'Here it comes…'

But a hit never came.

As soon as Naruto opened his eyes, Sasuke's index and middle fingers touched his glabella gently.

Naruto was stupefied. 'Sasuke just poked me in the forehead…?'

Naruto's lips were parted and he blushed again when he saw the pink spread across Sasuke's cheeks.

"Goodnight, Naruto…" Sasuke murmured, closing the door slowly.

But before he could get it all the way shut, Naruto stopped the door from moving and opened it back up, watching Sasuke back up as he pushed his way inside.

"Naruto, what–?"

But Naruto cut him off by kissing him again.

It was short and full of inexperience, but it was enough for Naruto. He even tried opening his mouth a bit, but when his tongue touched Sasuke's, he closed his mouth again.

And when they broke apart, Naruto smiled and moved closer to the open door. "Night, teme!" And with that, Naruto took off running.

Sasuke closed the door, not knowing how to feel. He just decided he'd better sleep. And so, after turning off the lights, he headed to his bedroom.

* * *

A/N

Sooo they kissed willingly! ! ! Aha, I'll try to update soon and if you like KakaIta, I have a kakaita fic called 'Unchangeable' i may post. c: anyways, i hope you enjoyed!


	15. Fourteen

**Fourteen | A New Mission in The Sand!**

* * *

Things weren't quite right after the kiss shared between the boys. Sakura looked guilty whenever she looked at Sasuke or Naruto, Sasuke blushed lightly and got mad at himself whenever he caught himself staring at Naruto, and Naruto acted like nothing happened between any of them.

This had gone on for two days, before Sakura stopped looking guilty and started fawning over Sasuke again. Sasuke didn't stare at Naruto or blush all that much, but Naruto still acted like nothing was going on between he and Sasuke, even when the boys were alone.

And Sasuke was a bit angry about that. Naruto couldn't just take his first, non-accidental kiss and then act like nothing happened between them (although, Sasuke would occasionally catch Naruto smiling at him, and Sasuke didn't know what to make of it).

But he didn't say anything to Naruto. Saying something would make him seem insecure.

He wasn't insecure.

He was an Uchiha.

Anyway, when team seven met up the day after the incident, Sakura and Kakashi both had asked about the bruise on Sasuke's cheek, and Sasuke just ignored them.

Their mission was only a couple of days away now, but Sasuke didn't really want to go. He really wanted to just be alone.

But sometimes, when Sasuke was alone, he was tempted to seek out Orochimaru, to gain the power needed to defeat Itachi and kill him.

Although, he hadn't left or anything yet, so that was good.

The day before team seven were supposed to go on the mission, Sasuke was pulled aside by Kakashi.

"Sasuke, what went on between the three of you?" The silver haired man asked. "I've noticed something wasn't quite right and now all of you seem fine? What happened?"

Sasuke sighed. "Naruto's and Sakura's date didn't go well, and so Naruto came to me for some sort of comfort, but we ended up fighting," he explained, crossing his arms with a huff.

"That's it?"

"Pretty much. Anyway, what's this mission we're supposed to be going on?"

"Well, actually, that mission had been cancelled. I planned on telling you guys later tonight."

"Oh, well… alright… I guess…"

"But I'm trying to get you guys another mission, yeah?"

"What mission?" Sasuke asked tiredly. He hadn't been getting much sleep.

"I'll tell you later, alright? Anyway, why don't you go home and get some rest? You look dead on your feet."

"Yeah, I guess I'm pretty tired," Sasuke murmured with a yawn. He turned and began to walk off. "I'm going to go home."

"See you later, Sasuke."

"Hn."

* * *

Sasuke woke up early the next morning, despite the fact he didn't sleep much the night before. He walked into the bathroom, looking at his reflection in the mirror. He looked pale, tired.

He turned on the tap, cupping his hands beneath the stream of water. He brought that water up, splashing it on his face.

When he looked back into the mirror, his gaze landed on the curse mark on his shoulder. He touched it momentarily, dropping his gaze to the sink, before dropping his arm, too.

He wandered back into his bedroom, dressing himself before leaving his house and the Uchiha compound. He walked to his team's meeting place, a bridge. Sakura was not present, but Naruto was, surprisingly.

"Wow, dobe, you're here early," Sasuke remarked, a small smirk on his face, his arms crossed.

Naruto grinned, nodding. "Way earlier than you, bastard," he replied, turning his head to look at the Uchiha boy.

Naruto's grin faltered a bit, noticing how tired Sasuke looked.

"So, uh," Naruto said, walking towards his teammate. "I came here because I knew you'd be here soon, and I needed to tell you Sakura's sick with a cold, so Kakashi-sensei said that we'll meet up when she's feeling better."

"I see… alright."

"Are you alright? You look really tired."

"Didn't sleep well," Sasuke murmured, shrugging.

"Oh," Naruto said quietly.

"And besides, I don't see why you'd care anyway, dunce."

Naruto's eyebrows furrowed. "You–"

He cut himself off when Sasuke gestured for him to come closer. He did so, a confused expression on his face.

"I'll catch you later, Naruto," Sasuke said, reaching his hand out and tapping Naruto's forehead, causing the blond boy to blush lightly.

Sasuke turned then, and began to walk off. Naruto spluttered. "H- Hey, where do you think you're going, bastard?!"

Sasuke smirked, but didn't answer the younger boy and kept on walking. Naruto frowned and walked off in the opposite direction.

* * *

Naruto was walking to ramen shop for dinner – he had no more instant stuff and he really didn't feel like going out and buying more, so he decided to go to Ichiraku Ramen instead.

As he turned the corner, he felt fingers tapping his forehead none too gently. He winced a bit.

"Ow!" He exclaimed, rubbing his forehead. "What the hell'd you do that for–?"

"Usuratonkachi," Sasuke said with a bored tone, rolling his eyes. "I ran into Kakashi-sensei. We have a mission. Let's go."

Sasuke grabbed the blond's wrist, dragging him along.

"Hey, but where are we going?!"

"To the Hokage's office, idiot. Where else?"

"But– but… I haven't even gotten to eat yet!"

"Too bad."

The two boys made their way to Lady Tsunade's office in little time. Kakashi, Neji and Shikamaru were there already.

"I have a mission for you," the Hokage said, staring at Naruto and Sasuke. "The Hidden Sand needs help rebuilding. They were recently attacked and most of their shinobi are out on missions. I am sending Neji and Shikamaru because first of all, Sakura is sick, second, Rock Lee is still injured from the Chuunin Exams, third, Ino is taking time off to spend time with her family, and lastly, Team Eight is on a mission, so there isn't a complete squad available."

"Ugh, this is such a drag," Shikamaru murmured, yawning.

"Hm," Neji sighed, closing his eyes. "Rebuilding, huh?"

"That sounds so lame," Naruto whined, scrunching up his face.

'He's got a point,' Sasuke thought, shrugging.

"Go home and pack some things," Tsunade told the three genin and the chuunin. "You'll be leaving in thirty minutes. Remember, it takes three days to get there, and you'll be there for a couple of days, and then it'll take three days to get back home, so make sure you pack enough clothes and stuff."

"Alright," Shikamaru said, stretching a bit.

"Also, Kakashi, you won't be going. I have another mission for you."

Kakashi nodded, and the four teenagers left the Hokage's office to get ready to leave Konoha.

* * *

A/N

I am very, very disappointed with this chapter. It's very short and very late. It's because: 1, I accidentally left my charger at my dad's house for a month and just got it back in the beginning of January; 2, I was told that the story was being rushed and I was trying to figure out how to fix that, so I made up a new mission instead of doing what I really wanted to, which would've lead into the Shippuden timeline (the reason I'm somewhat rushing it, is because it's not even close to being done yet, I don't think, idk, and because if I drag out a story for too long, I end up abandoning it, so I was trying to move on with the plot rather than adding more filler, such as this) and doing so gave me a bit of trouble/writer's block for this, but I needed to post since I haven't in over a month.

I'm currently working on three oneshots for you guys, too. That's mostly what I've been writing. Anyways, I'm very sorry about this. I'll write a better chapter soon.


	16. Fifteen

**Fifteen | Sasuke's Decision**

* * *

It was pretty dark when Naruto, Sasuke, Shikamaru and Neji left the Leaf Village. Shikamaru – who was in charge since he was the only chuunin and the others were still genin – decided that they'd walk as far as they could, and once someone got tired, they'd stop for the night.

They'd only walked twenty minutes and Naruto was already tired.

They stopped to set up camp for the night, Shikamaru bunking with Neji and Sasuke with Naruto (since, first, they only brought two tents, which was less to carry, second, it wasn't a good idea for Sasuke to be with the Hyuuga, and third, Naruto and Sasuke were on the same team anyway). It wasn't cold outside, so there was no need for a fire. The four quickly just got into their tents and tried to get some sleep.

Naruto was out almost immediately, but Sasuke lay awake for a little while before he finally fell asleep as well.

The next morning after breakfast, they were off again, heading for the Sand. The four of them were mostly quiet, even Naruto, surprisingly.

The day passed by quickly, and soon, they were setting up camp again.

The next day is when they reached the Sand. They spent the rest of the day working hard, and the day after was the same – hard work, and the next day, even more work.

While they were working together, Sasuke and Naruto had gotten closer. It was almost hard to tell, but if one looked close enough, it could've been seen.

On the last day at the Sand, since Sasuke had gotten injured, they set off early for Konoha to get Sasuke healed up by Tsunade, and three days after that, they were home.

Sasuke was put into the hospital, got healed, and was told to stay and rest for a few days, and so, of course Sakura had to go and visit him.

Naruto also went to visit, but it ended up turning into a fight that took place on the roof, but was stopped by Kakashi.

Kakashi ended up giving Sasuke a lecture and then he left. Sasuke sat in a tree awhile but was attacked… by four Sound shinobi, who tried to convince him to join Orochimaru.

They told him he could get more power. They told him not to forget his goal of killing his brother. Then, they disappeared into the night.

Sasuke thought about it for a long while. He thought about Naruto. He wondered what the blond would do if he did leave. He wondered if, perhaps he'd be forgotten. He let out a sigh as he thought of his brother.

He wanted to kill Itachi with everything he had, but… was leaving the village worth it? Was leaving Naruto behind and heading into the darkness the best way to go about it?

He thought about it again. He thought for a long time.

He made a decision.

* * *

He stood in his room, the moon's light illuminating his face through the window. He looked at the picture he held in his hands.

Kakashi-sensei, Sakura…

Naruto…

He laid the picture face down; he couldn't stand to look at it longer. It'd just make things harder.

He found a recent picture of him and Naruto, which had been in his nightstand drawer. Naruto was grinning and Sasuke had a small smile on his face. That day had been a nice day.

One of the best.

He put the picture in his pocket. He'd keep this one. He didn't know why, however. Something about the picture made him feel... something.

He took one last glance around his room, for he was sure this would be the last time he'd see it. So many things happened here, in this house. Some good, some very bad.

He had mixed feelings about abandoning it, but…

He'd decided it would be for the best.

He left, walking the streets in the midnight darkness. He had one stop left to make before he went.

When he reached his destination, he hid his backpack in the dark where it couldn't be seen and knocked on the door.

The door opened, revealing a rather tired looking Naruto.

"Sasuke…?" The blond mumbled, rubbing his eyes. Sasuke didn't say anything, and after a moment, Naruto let him inside.

"I'm sorry," is all Sasuke said, eyes downcast. Naruto raised an eyebrow.

"For…?"

Sasuke didn't answer, shaking his head. Naruto was pretty confused at this point.

Sasuke was sorry for their fight. He was sorry for how he'd treated Naruto, how Sakura and everyone else treated him for the longest time.

But most of all... he was sorry for his decision.

"Dobe," Sasuke uttered gently, smiling a little. He stepped closer to his confused teammate. Reaching his arm out, he extended his fingers and tapped Naruto's forehead.

He let his arm fall and had full intentions on leaving immediately, before he could change his mind, but…

Naruto had leaned forward and kissed him.

Sasuke's eyes widened, and he forgot how to breathe for a moment. He kissed back fiercely. Naruto grabbed his shirt, pulling him closer.

Naruto shoved him into the wall, not giving Sasuke any time to breathe.

Sasuke felt Naruto's hands sliding up his shirt, and he pulled back as much he could to chuckle and grab Naruto's wrists.

"Don't be a pervert, usuratonkachi," he said, shaking his head, and Naruto blushed, narrowing his eyes.

"I'm not a pervert, teme!" Naruto exclaimed. Sasuke nearly snorted.

"Hn, right. That's why your hands are up my shirt, huh?"

Naruto growled. "Shut up."

"Why don't you make me, dobe?" Sasuke gave a smirk of triumph, though he hadn't really won the argument.

"Who's being pervy now?" Naruto said, sticking his tongue out. Sasuke took that tongue into his own mouth, experimenting, and Naruto's eyes went wide.

Sasuke pulled back after a moment. "You talk a lot, you know."

"Yeah, you too."

They kissed again, and for a moment, Sasuke had almost forgotten what he was going to do.

By the next day, Naruto would surely hate him. He'd probably come after him and try to stop him, however.

Sasuke would have to kill him if that happened.

He wasn't sure if he could do it.

He felt guilty thinking about all he had planned after leaving. Kissing Naruto made it worse.

All they did was kiss. Neither of them were ready for anything beyond that. Besides, they were young and didn't know what to do anyway.

Naruto ended up getting tired and wanted to go to sleep. Sasuke lay with him, and when he was sure Naruto was finally asleep, Sasuke kissed him one last time and got up.

"I'm sorry I have to leave you," Sasuke whispered sadly. "I'm sorry I have to break our bond. It's just I have my dream to take care of, and you have yours. I hope people start treating you better; you deserve it."

Sasuke let out a sigh, caressing Naruto's whiskered cheek.

"Goodbye, Naruto..." The Uchiha then said softly, walking to the door. Without looking back, he left, not being able to voice the last thing he wanted to say.

'I love you.'

Sasuke made sure to shut off all the lights before leaving. He picked up his backpack outside and was on his way.

He was stopped by Sakura before he could leave the village. She'd begun confessing her love like it would make him change his mind.

He didn't.

She even offered to go with him, to make him happy and to give him love. She offered to help with his revenge. She Saud anything she could; she just didn't want to live without him. She tried everything to get him to stay or to let her go with him.

But she failed.

"I swear I'll scream and-"

He disappeared, and she could hear his voice behind her. "Sakura."

Her eyes widened and more tears streamed down her face.

"Thank you," he said, and then he knocked her out, and left her on a nearby bench.

He started off again into the darkness, ready to go to Orochimaru, leaving behind the place he called home.

* * *

\- A/N -

Omg sorry this took forever to update :c I had writer's block just for this fic.

Anyway I hope you liked this c: sorry if it seems rushed, by the way.


	17. Sixteen

**Sixteen | My Best Friend**

* * *

The next day, Sakura told everyone what had happened, and Tsunade sent out a squad to retrieve Sasuke, containing Naruto, Shikamaru, Neji, Kiba and Choji. Lee wanted to go, but was still injured from the fight against Gaara in the chuunin exams, so he had to stay behind.

One by one, the team fought the Sound ninja four who had Sasuke in a coffin, and most of the team were badly injured. Naruto went on ahead, but another ninja working with Orochimaru got in the way – Kimimaro. His kekkei genkai made him a tough opponent, and eventually, Sasuke woke up from his sleep inside the coffin and took off.

But then Rock Lee came to fight Kimimaro and Naruto chased after Sasuke. Gaara also ended up coming to help Lee.

Sasuke and Naruto clashed. Naruto learned Sasuke's reason for leaving, and he still tried to stop him. He stood across from the Uchiha, atop a statue.

"Sasuke…I thought that you and I were going to be together! You like me a lot, don't you? I like you just as much, believe it! Come back to the Leaf and be with me!"

"Usuratonkachi, you sound just like Sakura. None of that matters to me now. I've made a decision and it isn't you."

Naruto parted his lips. "But… Sasuke… I thought you… I thought you were starting to love me…"

"I don't love you, Naruto. I never have. I was only passing the time. You may have been my best friend, but you were never anything more to me. Your feelings for me are childish."

Naruto's eyes widened. What Sasuke said had hurt. "Then what was last night?!" He shouted angrily, and Sasuke glared at him from atop the statue he was on. "You came over and kissed me for a long time! I fell asleep in your arms, and yet you say you never felt a thing?! We have a bond, Sasuke!"

Sasuke didn't say anything, and Naruto just waited.

"Even if I had felt something, nothing would change. I'm still going to sever that bond, and break those ties that bind me to you. I'll do so by killing you. You, Naruto, my best friend."

They collided, fighting and fighting for a long time, but in the end, Naruto had lost. He fell, unconscious and wounded.

However, Sasuke could not bring himself to end his best friend's life. It began to rain, and Sasuke collapsed to his knees above the blond, his slashed leaf headband falling to the ground as he found himself face to face with his best friend.

Staring into Naruto's closed eyelids, Sasuke slowly leaned down and gently brushed his lips against the younger boy's for the last time, kissing him upside down.

"I lied," he whispered when he pulled away. "I do feel something for you. But it would be for the best now if you forgot about me and moved on. Our dreams lie at the ends of very different paths. We must go our separate ways from this point on."

Sasuke sighed out. "Goodbye, Naruto," he said, tapping the blond's forehead with his fingers before standing up, looking at his friend one last time.

And then he left, in search of Orochimaru to be able to gain the power needed to bring Itachi down.

When Naruto came to, he was being carried back to the village on Kakashi's back. He asked about Sasuke, and the copy ninja didn't have an answer for him that was a good one. He did, however, give Naruto Sasuke's headband.

Naruto then was in the hospital, and learned that he had to leave for three years to train with Jiraiya due to the Akatsuki wanting him for the Nine-Tails. He also needed to get strong enough to get Sasuke back before Orochimaru stole his body.

Jiraiya told Naruto to give up on Sasuke, but he refused to. He couldn't give up on him.

And not much later, they left.

* * *

Orochimaru smiled wickedly in the darkness, so much so that it could be considered menacing. Sasuke stood beside Kabuto, waiting.

"I'm delighted that you have come, Sasuke…" The snakelike man said lowly, hissing slightly, and Sasuke nearly gave a shiver at his tone of voice. "I see that you have been fighting…" Sasuke gave a slight nod at this and Orochimaru's eyes moved to Kabuto. "Take the boy to bathe, but first get ready some new clothes for him."

Kabuto pushed his glasses up the bridge of his nose and back into place. "Very well," he uttered, turning and leaving the room. Sasuke found himself looking around the dark room which was illuminated only by candlelight.

His mind fell back to Naruto, and he frowned, sighing.

"I need to get as strong as possible to be able to kill my brother…" He murmured, eyes on the ground now. "I need to exact my revenge. I need to kill him and avenge my clan."

'Perhaps then, I'll be able to come back to you…'

"Ah, yes… Itachi Uchiha…" Orochimaru said thoughtfully. "Yes… I can assist you… I can give you all the power you need to kill him… but I need something from you in return later on…"

"What is it?" Sasuke asked, and Orochimaru could only grin.

"You'll find out in due time…"

Before Sasuke could have time to really wonder what he meant, Kabuto returned. "Everything's ready for you to take a bath, Sasuke," he uttered quietly, and quickly ushered Sasuke away.

Later that night, Sasuke lay awake, feeling tired but unable to sleep. His mind wouldn't leave Naruto, and that night, he barely slept at all.

* * *

A/N

I'm definitely not happy with the word count, but writer's block is a bitch and so this was the best I could do ;-; I hope you liked it.

Oh, and i may change my username on here from Onision to starboysasuke because i don't really like Onision anymore, so don't freak out if it changes c:


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